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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.13520 |
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Table of Contents:
- Materials driven far from equilibrium can encode memories of past deformations through long-lived structural reorganisations. Such memory effects-reflecting parameters such as deformation direction, magnitude, and duration have been widely explored in soft amorphous solids. Here, we report a Kovacs-like memory effect manifested as a non-monotonic stress relaxation in vitro biopolymer networks formed by collagen, an essential component of the mammalian extracellular matrix. Using shear rheology combined with in-situ optical imaging, we find that this memory effect emerges exclusively in the nonlinear strain-stiffening regime, and persists over a much broader range of strain amplitudes than previously reported for other viscoelastic amorphous materials. Furthermore, we uncover a strong correlation between the memory response and the development of negative normal stresses and associated strain fields, highlighting the unique nonequilibrium mechanics underlying memory formation in biopolymer networks.