{
  "abstract": "The Kovacs effect, characterized by nonlinear, path-dependent structural recovery, is a hallmark of glassy systems. In soft colloidal microgel glasses, particle stiffness governs deformation, swelling, rearrangement, and response to external stimuli, and thereby dictates the path-dependent structural recovery of these jammed non-equilibrium systems. To investigate this influence, microgels of different stiffnesses were synthesized by adjusting the concentration of the polar crosslinker, N, N methylenebisacrylamide (MBA). The relaxation of the storage and loss moduli was measured using oscillatory rheology under diverse temperature ramp rates, and cryo-FESEM imaging provided direct visualization of the underlying particle packing. While the rapid adaptability of soft particles and the kinetic arrest of stiff ones suppresses Kovacs asymmetry, intermediate-stiffness particles exhibit moderate thermoresponsivity, traversing distinct energy landscapes on heating and cooling to maximize asymmetry and dissipation. Cryo-FESEM micrographs, displaying gel-like networks in soft particle suspensions, dense packing in stiff particle suspensions, and disordered, compact structures in intermediate-stiffness systems, corroborate these findings. Our results demonstrate that intermediate-stiffness PNIPAM microgels optimize structural recovery, rendering them promising candidates for forming colloidal glasses, and establish Kovacs asymmetry as a robust probe of non-equilibrium dynamics in glassy systems.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2610.29389",
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Sonali Vasant Kawale"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ranjini Bandyopadhyay"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1carerxd5khf4.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2610.29389",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "1carerxd5khf4",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.29389",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "cond-mat.soft"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "physics.chem-ph"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2505|Material Dynamics and Properties"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223249027",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.29389",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-29",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1carerxd5khf4.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:36:22Z",
      "native_id": "2610.29389",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.29389"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "chemistry",
      "origin": "arxiv:physics.chem-ph",
      "subfield": "physical"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:cond-mat.soft",
      "subfield": "condensed-matter"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Tuning Thermal Memory and Dissipation in Colloidal Microgel Glasses via Particle Stiffness",
  "title_text": "Tuning Thermal Memory and Dissipation in Colloidal Microgel Glasses via Particle Stiffness",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-01T12:20:44Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/1carerxd5khf4",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}