About

Professor Karin A. Dahmen received her Vordiplom in physics from the Universität Bonn, Germany, in 1989, and her Ph.D. in physics from Cornell University in 1995. Before joining the faculty at Illinois in 1999, she was a Junior Fellow at Harvard University. Her research interests encompass a wide range of topics in 'soft' condensed matter physics, including nonequilibrium dynamical systems, hysteresis, avalanches, earthquakes, population biology, and disorder-induced critical behavior. She focuses on non-equilibrium phenomena, pattern formations, and collective behavior in systems driven far from equilibrium, applying methods from dynamical systems, chaos, critical phenomena, hydrodynamics, and disordered systems theory. Her work includes developing analytical models to describe universal aspects of slip avalanches and plasticity across various materials, leading experimental and theoretical collaborations. She has contributed to understanding deformation properties in materials such as bulk metallic glasses, high entropy alloys, colloids, and biological systems, with ongoing projects exploring phenomena like star flux variability, hysteresis in phase transformations, earthquake statistics, and effects of quenched disorder in population biology.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Thermodynamics
• Materials science
• Composite material
• Physics
• Metallurgy
• Quantum mechanics
• Optics
• Acoustics
• Condensed matter physics
• Mechanics
• Computational physics

Selected publications

• Structural-weakening mapping to seismic-like slip avalanches in bulk-metallic glasses

  Intermetallics · 2025-01-28

  article
  PublisherDOI

• All-Optical Relaxometry Probe of Spin Fluctuations Near Criticality

  2025-01-01

  article

  We reveal the critical behavior of a ferromagnet near its Curie temperature using cluster analysis of the temperature-dependent nanoscale magnetic texture and temperature- and height-dependent NV spin-lifetime measurements measured with scanning NV microscopy.

  PublisherDOI

• Nonequilibrium phase diagram for the serration statistics during slow deformation of refractory high-entropy alloys

  Scientific Reports · 2025-02-28 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Diverse slip behaviors are observed in HfNbTaTiZr refractory high-entropy alloy during tensile tests. Slow-avalanche and fast-runaway phases are identified by analyzing scaling relationships among slip statistics. Slow avalanches display a scaling collapse in temporal shapes, aligning with mean-field slip theory, while system-spanning fast-runaway avalanches show a Gaussian shape, indicating rapid nucleation due to dynamic weakening. Through time scale analysis, we construct a nonequilibrium phase diagram elucidating the influence of temperature and strain rate variations on solute-dislocation interaction.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Interpreting luminosity bursts in a Kepler-measured ZZ Ceti using avalanche statistics

  Physical review. D/Physical review. D. · 2025-09-29

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Universal crackling noise links plasticity in nanoindentation with compression in metallic glasses

  Materials Science and Engineering A · 2025-07-22 · 2 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Nanoscale Magnetic Ordering Dynamics in a High Curie Temperature Ferromagnet

  Nano Letters · 2025-01-13 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access

  Thermally driven transitions between ferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases are characterized by critical behavior with divergent susceptibilities, long-range correlations, and spin dynamics that can span kHz to GHz scales as the material approaches the critical temperature Tc, but it has proven technically challenging to probe the relevant length and time scales with most conventional measurement techniques. In this study, we employ scanning nitrogen-vacancy center based magnetometry and relaxometry to reveal the critical behavior of a high-Tc ferromagnetic oxide near its Curie temperature. Cluster analysis of the measured temperature-dependent nanoscale magnetic textures points to a 3D universality class with a correlation length that diverges near Tc. Meanwhile, the temperature-dependent spin dynamics, measured through all optical relaxometry suggest that the phase transition is in the XY universality class. Our results capture both static and dynamic aspects of critical behavior, providing insights into universal properties that govern phase transitions in magnetic materials.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Simple model for the prediction of seizure durations

  Physical review. E · 2024-07-02 · 1 citations

  article

  A simple model is used to simulate seizures in a population of spiking excitatory neurons experiencing a uniform effect from inhibitory neurons. A key feature is introduced into the model, i.e., a mechanism that weakens the firing thresholds. This weakening mechanism adds memory to the dynamics. We find a seizure-prone state in a "mode-switching" phase. In this phase, the system can suddenly switch from a "healthy" state with small scale-free avalanches to a "seizure" state with almost periodic large avalanches ("seizures"). Simulations of the model predict statistics for the average time spent in the seizure state (the seizure "duration") that agree with experiments and theoretical examples of similar behavior in neuronal systems. Our study points to. different connections between seizures and fracture and also offers an alternative view on the type of critical point controlling neuronal avalanches.

  PublisherDOI

• A novel method may reveal bulk metallic glass compressive ductility trends in high data rate nanoindentation

  Journal of Applied Physics · 2024-06-06 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Recent methods allow novel amorphous alloy compositions to be rapidly manufactured at small scale; however, obtaining materials properties such as compressive ductility from these smaller specimens has remained a challenge. Here, we suggest a potential high-throughput nanoindentation method that may be able to rapidly characterize the relative compressive ductility between these alloys based on their serration characteristics. The properties of emergent serrations, when interpreted in a simple micromechanical stress relaxation model, may order these materials by their compressive plastic strain to failure. These results are consistent with the ordering obtained from compressed specimens as well as with model simulations, suggesting that this model may be broadly useful for interpreting compressive ductility from nanoindentation serrations. After it is validated on more materials, this new method will match the rapid pace of amorphous alloy development, thus allowing metallic glass properties to be fine-tuned for each application prior to scale prototyping.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Quantifying chemomechanical weakening in muscovite mica with a simple micromechanical model

  Nature Communications · 2024-11-06 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  In response to gradual nanoindentation, the surface of muscovite mica deforms by sudden stochastic nanometer-scale displacement bursts. Here, the statistics of these displacement events are interpreted using a statistical model previously used to model earthquakes to understand how chemically reactive environments alter the surface properties of this material. We show that the statistics of nanoindentation displacement bursts in muscovite mica are tuned by chemomechanical weakening in a manner similar to how the statistics of model events are tuned by a mechanical weakening parameter that describes how easily system-spanning cracks can be nucleated. Because the predictions of this model are independent of any surface defects or structural details, these results suggest this simple model can be universally used to describe chemomechanical weakening in many systems prone to slip avalanches on a wide range of spatio-temporal scales. Changes in muscovite caused by environmental factors can be detected in nanoindentation data with a statistical physics model for plastic deformation. The model’s simplicity implies these findings may generalize to other layered materials.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Quantifying chemomechanical weakening in muscovite mica with a simple micromechanical model

  2024-10-01

  reportOpen accessSenior author

  A simple mechanistic model models how layered materials respond to environmental weakening Changes in model weakening = changes in environmental pH General framework implies the model may apply in other layered systems Future work can explore other systems this relationship works within

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Effect of Cohesion on Size and Statistics of Avalanches in Granular Systems

  NSF · $200k · 2014–2019

• Dynamical Systems Special Topics: Dynamics of granular materials: jamming, avalanches, disorder, and localization

  NSF · $290k · 2011–2015

• Dynamics of Disordered Non-Equilibrium Systems: Hysteresis, Noise, and Domain Wall Dynamics in Systems Ranging from Magnets to Earthquakes

  NSF · $156k · 2003–2006

• Plasticity and Avalanches: Connections Between Systems Ranging from Metals to Granular Materials

  NSF · $296k · 2010–2015

Frequent coauthors

• Xie Xie

  Shanghai University

  67 shared

• Peter K. Liaw

  62 shared

• Jingli Ren

  56 shared

• E. D. Tabachnikova

  B. Verkin Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

  55 shared

• Marina Laktionova

  B. Verkin Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine

  51 shared

• Xiaoxiang Guo

  Zhengzhou University

  49 shared

• Li‐Ping Yu

  49 shared

• Wing‐Sum Cheung

  University of Hong Kong

  49 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  1994

• M.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  1990

• B.S., Electrical and Computer Engineering

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  1988

Awards & honors

• Alumni Award for Distinguished Service