Homepage of Dr. Monoj Adhikari - Department of Theoretical Physics II

Horbach Group

Dr. Monoj Adhikari
Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Institut für Theoretische Physik II - Soft Matter
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
Building 25.32
Room O2.37
Universitätsstraße 1
D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany

phone: +49-211-81-13703
e-mail: monoj.adhikari <at> hhu.de

Research

Rheology of Deeply Supercooled Liquids
Developed a new polydisperse model based on the Kob–Andersen Lennard-Jones system to study deeply supercooled liquids using a hybrid Molecular Dynamics and SWAP Monte Carlo approach. Established a protocol to access Newtonian states corresponding to extremely low shear rates far below the glass transition temperature. Investigated strain-rate switching and memory behavior in deeply supercooled liquids.
Memory Effects in Amorphous Solids
Demonstrated robust encoding and retrieval of single and multiple memories in amorphous solids under cyclic shear. Identified how system sizes and direction influence memory stability, showing that multi directioanl shear protocols and smaller system sizes enhance memory retention and readout accuracy.
Mechanical Response of Amorphous Solids
Explored the yielding behavior of model glasses under both symmetric and asymmetric cyclic shear deformation. Established a connection between fragility (dynamic behavior) and yielding (mechanical response) by studying eight different model glass formers. Investigated yielding in bulk metallic glasses using the “soft matrix” approach to extract a characteristic, age-dependent length scale associated with the onset of plasticity.
Glass and Jamming Transitions in Higher Spatial Dimensions
Using a density–temperature scaling approach, identified a crossover density marking the ideal glass transition in the hard-sphere limit and demonstrated that it is distinct from the athermal jamming point across spatial dimensions. Investigated the dynamics of model glass-forming liquids in dimensions 3–8 to understand how fragility, dynamic heterogeneity, and the Stokes–Einstein relation evolve with dimensionality. Explored the Adam–Gibbs relation for diffusivity and relaxation time, confirming its validity in three dimensions and its breakdown in higher dimensions.

Curriculum Vitae

2023 – Present	Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Theoretical Physics II, Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany
2022 – 2023	Postdoctoral Fellow at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Hyderabad, India
2021 – 2022	Senior Research Fellow at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Hyderabad, India
2014 – 2021	Ph.D., Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore, India Thesis Title: The role of dimensionality in the glass transition and memory behaviour of amorphous solids.
2011 – 2013	M.Sc. in Physics, Visva Bharati University, West Bengal, India
2008 – 2011	B.Sc. in Physics, Visva Bharati University, West Bengal, India

Publications

Memory formation in cyclically deformed amorphous solids and sphere assemblies, Monoj Adhikari and Srikanth Sastry, The European Physical Journal E 41 (9), 105, (2018).
Spatial Dimensionality Dependence of Heterogeneity, Breakdown of the Stokes–Einstein Relation and Fragility of a Model Glass-Forming Liquid, Monoj Adhikari, Smarajit Karmakar, and Srikanth Sastry, The Journal of Physical Chemistry B 125 (36), 10232–10239 (2021).
Yielding behavior of glasses under asymmetric cyclic deformation, Muhittin Mungan and Srikanth Sastry, arXiv:2201.06535, (2022).
Soft Matrix: Extracting Inherent Length Scales in Sheared Amorphous Solids, Aparna Sreekumari, Monoj Adhikari, Vishnu V. Krishnan, Nandlal Pingua, Shilditya Sengupta, Pinaki Chaudhuri, Smarajit Karmakar, Vishwas V. Vasisht, https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-7044633/v — currently under review at Nature Communications,(2023).
Dependence of the glass transition and jamming densities on spatial dimension, Monoj Adhikari, Smarajit Karmakar, and Srikanth Sastry, Physical Review Letters 131 (16), 168202 (2023).
Different glassy characteristics are related to either caging or dynamical heterogeneity, Puneet Pareek, Monoj Adhikari, Chandan Dasgupta, and Saroj Kumar Nandi, The Journal of Chemical Physics 159 (17), (2023).
Role of Fragility of the Glass Formers in the Yielding Transition under Oscillatory Shear, Roni Chatterjee, Monoj Adhikari, Smarajit Karmakar, arXiv:2403.16972, currently under review Nature Communications https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-5846828/v1 (2024)
Encoding Robust and Fast Memories in Bulk and Nanoscale Amorphous Solids, Monoj Adhikari, Rishabh Sharma, Smarajit Karmakar, Physical Review Letters 134 (1), 018202 (2025).
Effect of microalloying via soft and hard random pinning on the yielding transition of amorphous solids under oscillatory shear, R. Chatterjee, M. Adhikari, S. Karmakar, Physical Review E 112 (2), 025427, (2025).
Dispersions of weakly charged thermoresponsive microgels at high densities, M. Hildebrandt, D. P. Thuy, A. Domgans, A. Scotti, S. Prévost, M. Adhikari, J. Horbach, M. Karg, Soft Matter 21 (31), 6220–6233, (2025).

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