ESPCI web site
Pathways and Information in Complex Matter
Collections of two-state hysteretic elements called hysterons describe the intricate pathways, hysteresis loops and memory effects observed in crumpled sheets and amorphous media. Such hysterons also naturally arise in many mechanical metamaterials and are then associated with buckling and snapping. Here we bridge these two fields, and explore, in experiments on corrugated sheets, on metamaterials, and in models, the pathways that these systems exhibit. In particular, we show that interactions between hysterons make these systems process information, and demonstrate examples of elementary mechanical computations such as counting and pattern matching.