Covariant hyperelastic stress determines frame indifference Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
For a continuously differentiable energy on the connected set of positive-determinant matrices, material frame indifference differentiates to the displayed covariance of the first Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor. Conversely that covariance makes independent of . Call the constant . Composition gives . Continuity and compactness of the rotation group make bounded, while forces every to vanish. Thus no additive rotation-dependent energy ambiguity remains. Homogeneity means the energy has no explicit dependence on the material point; it is separate from this observer-independence property.
Hyperelastic energy well Created 2026-10-31 Updated 2026-11-05
A hyperelastic energy well is a set of deformation gradients minimizing the stored-energy function at a fixed temperature. Material frame indifference makes each well invariant under left multiplication by proper rotations. A phase-changing crystal can have a single austenitic rotational well at high temperature and several martensitic wells below a transition. Continuous deformations cannot freely join arbitrary wells: planar interfaces require a rank-one connection between the selected gradients.
For a material isotropy and material frame indifference strain energy density , take , , , , . The chain rule and give . Multiplying by yields the displayed Cauchy stress tensor. Material isotropy allows an identity term and a quadratic term in , as well as the term proportional to .
Material isotropy Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-11-05
Material isotropy makes the elastic response independent of a rotation of reference material directions: for proper rotations . Combined with material frame indifference, it yields coaxiality of isotropic elastic stress.
Material symmetry group 2026-10-31
The symmetry group of a hyperelastic material consists of invertible reference transformations preserving its strain energy density: for every admissible deformation gradient . A convention restricting reference transformations to determinant one restricts to the special linear group. Material isotropy requires all proper rotations in this group. This right action differs from the left action in material frame indifference.
Let , , and , so the single-bead mobility is . Assume an incompressible solvent, constant , negligible bead inertia, and a symmetric positive-definite . The last requirement makes the resistance invertible and Brownian diffusion physically admissible. At a given position and time, depends on the moment but not on the individual configuration .
Use the source's gradient convention , and write for the component-first gradient. Then . The spring forces on the two beads are and . Their overdamped probability currents are
Here the Brownian term written as is a force weighted by probability density. Its corresponding conditional osmotic force is ; treating the given term as an unweighted deterministic force per bead would not produce the stated Fokker–Planck equation.
With midpoint , the derivatives are and . Subtracting the bead currents gives the configuration current
The midpoint current is after neglecting the specified spatial Brownian diffusion. Configuration probability conservation therefore gives
Since has components , this agrees with the source's . The factor two in both spring relaxation and configuration diffusivity comes from relative motion of both beads.
The second moment is the unnormalized conformation tensor. Now multiply by and integrate over configuration space. Assume sufficiently decaying tails so every boundary term at infinite separation vanishes. The affine current gives ; spring drift gives ; two integrations by parts of diffusion give . Hence
Because , is a polynomial in and commutes with it. Thus
This is the Hookean dumbbell conformation equation with anisotropic mobility, an exact second-moment closure within the stated model; no Gaussian approximation to was needed.
The upper-convected derivative of the identity is . Applying it to the polymer stress therefore gives
Consequently the coefficients and the closed stress equation are
where in the printed convention. Here is a polymer relaxation time, unrelated to the inverse-length parameter of question c; is the polymer viscosity scale. The coefficient has inverse-stress units. In the dimensional mobility parameter in the Giesekus model, the dimensionless factor is , not the dimensional printed in this problem.
The upper-convected rate removes the affine stretching and rotation of material connectors. If , then a tensor transported purely as has . Under a time-dependent rigid rotation , the rate transforms as : this is material frame indifference, not an ordinary componentwise time derivative. The resulting equation is the Giesekus model in these dimensional conventions.
The isotropic subtraction is fixed by zero polymer extra stress at thermal equilibrium. With no flow and positive mobility, the stationary distribution is
so . The constitutive equation correspondingly has a zero-stress quiescent state and a Newtonian low-rate limit . Without subtracting exactly , the spring contribution would retain an equilibrium isotropic stress and the equation would acquire corresponding reference terms. Because mobility itself depends on , that reference cannot simply be shifted while retaining the same model. The separate fluid pressure enforcing incompressibility is not included in this polymer extra stress.
Let . Since , is a positive-definite matrix. The spectral theorem gives a unique principal square root of a positive semidefinite matrix
Then and , so is a rotation matrix. Define . It is a symmetric matrix, is positive definite, and satisfies . Consequently the polar decomposition in continuum mechanics is
Here and are the right stretch tensor and left stretch tensor.
For the Cauchy stress tensor, use both material isotropy and material frame indifference. Their respective transformation laws are
The first law and give . Combining the two laws gives . In a principal stretch basis, . Each half-turn about a coordinate axis leaves unchanged; its conjugation changes the signs of the corresponding off-diagonal stress tensor entries. Those entries must therefore vanish. If two principal stretches coincide, rotations within their eigenspace additionally force the stress tensor to be scalar on that eigenspace. Thus the Cauchy stress tensor and left stretch tensor have common principal axes, including at repeated principal stretches. This proves coaxiality of isotropic elastic stress.
The precise symmetry conclusion is equivariance of isotropic principal stresses. Every permutation of the principal stretches can be realized by a signed permutation rotation matrix, so
when the indexing is permuted consistently. Equivalently, permuting the arguments permutes the labelled principal stresses in the same way. In particular, is symmetric in , and analogous statements hold for .
For distinct principal stretches, interpolate the three values at the three points :
Uniqueness of this interpolation implies that the scalar coefficients are symmetric functions of the unordered principal stretches; they may be expressed through the elementary symmetric invariants. Smooth isotropic constitutive laws have the corresponding invariant representation across repeated stretches as well. The wording about symmetric functions must be understood in this collective sense: each labelled principal stress need not be symmetric in all three arguments. For example, the objective isotropic law has , which disproves that stronger interpretation.
Use material coordinates and write the placement as . The strain energy density in the printed convention is per unit reference mass. It is convenient to use the conventional first Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor , so
Assume the undeformed reference state is stress-free. With and infinitesimal strain tensor , material isotropy and material frame indifference give the quadratic expansion
Consequently the Lamé parameters from hyperelastic energy Hessian are
Indeed, differentiating the quadratic expression twice gives
the elastic stiffness tensor of linear elasticity. A prestressed reference state requires the corresponding initial-stress corrections; the displayed formula concerns the natural state.
For a plane elastic wave, , put and . Balance of momentum without body force becomes
This is a material-coordinate equation: the reference density cancels between inertia and nominal stress. If , the first-order system has characteristic speeds and right eigenvectors . Along a characteristic curve with , its differential compatibility relation is
This follows by multiplying the system by the left eigenvector . It does not assert the existence of globally integrable Riemann invariants for an arbitrary three-component constitutive law.
There is a necessary qualification to the finite-amplitude transverse request. Set and , so . The longitudinal momentum equation requires
Thus arbitrary nonuniform pure transverse profiles are possible only if the compatibility condition for pure nonlinear transverse waves holds:
The third component vanishes by the reflection symmetry implied by isotropy and objectivity. The shear equation then closes:
General compressible hyperelastic material assumptions alone do not imply the required compatibility. For a concrete counterexample, take the Saint Venant–Kirchhoff hyperelastic energy
For , this becomes
At , . A varying shear therefore produces a longitudinal force and cannot preserve . Infinitesimal transverse waves do exist, because this coupling is second order, but a general pure finite-amplitude transverse wave does not.
The compatible nonlinear shear energy class is nonempty and can be genuinely nonlinear. Define , , and, for , take
This is objective and isotropic. Near , , so it has the specified Lamé parameters. On the plane deformation above, and . Hence at , while
For positive , the relevant incremental plane moduli are positive. This supplies an explicit stable pure transverse family and, when , amplitude-dependent wave speed.
For any compatible family, let
The equations and give the Riemann invariants
Consider the initially undisturbed half-space . A right-going simple wave has the incoming invariant , so . Denote the prescribed boundary nominal stress by . The physical boundary traction, whose outward normal is , is . Invert the monotone law to obtain . The wave state emitted at boundary time is transported along
Ahead of the leading front the state is zero. Before characteristic crossing, these equations determine the unique emission time for each disturbed point. The displacement itself is also determined, rather than just its derivatives:
Differentiating the implicit emission relation verifies and , so this is the complete pre-shock simple wave solution.
Write . The boundary-generated characteristic curves lose invertibility when
Thus the characteristic crossing in a boundary-generated elastic simple wave criterion is
Here . A smoothly increasing boundary stress therefore steepens into a shock wave only when later states travel faster: . Increasing stress alone is insufficient. For the compatible example with and , , so a nonzero increasing ramp produces finite-time crossing. For all rays are parallel and no such shock forms. This criterion locates the first gradient singularity; subsequent discontinuous evolution additionally requires the jump conditions and an admissibility condition.
For a general vector simple wave, replace the pure-shear line by an integral curve
Substitution gives , with the same emission construction and crossing criterion. Boundary tractions must lie on this one-family curve. Generic finite-amplitude quasi-transverse waves may contain longitudinal displacement; arbitrary vector boundary forcing need not generate a single simple wave.
The usual elastic secondary flow around a rotating sphere is inward towards the equator, then poleward beside the sphere and outward near both poles. It is superposed on the primary azimuthal rotating sphere in Stokes flow. Tensile normal stresses along curved azimuthal streamlines act as hoop stresses, pulling liquid towards the rotation axis. Incompressibility supplies the axial return flow. Unlike the primary rotation, this meridional circulation does not reverse when the rotation is reversed.
The direction assumes the usual polymeric sign and negligible inertia. A general second-order fluid has circulation proportional to : a negative value reverses the arrows and eliminates the leading elastic circulation. Inertial secondary circulation is a different contribution, so slow rotation alone does not determine which contribution dominates. The sketch shows the elastic contribution for :
Figure 1.
Elastic meridional circulation entering at the equator and leaving near the poles of a rotating sphere
. Details.
For a quantitative check of the sketch, take sphere radius , angular velocity and . The primary azimuthal velocity is , with measured from the rotation axis. Its only nonzero strain components in the spherical orthonormal basis are . The leading elastic secondary circulation around a rotating sphere has the stream function
with and . The bracket is outside the sphere. Thus at the equator and near the poles when , and both components vanish on the sphere. The diagram uses these velocities, not independently chosen arrows.
Two other manifestations of the same elastic normal-stress differences are rod climbing, in which inward hoop stresses raise a free surface around a rotating rod, and die swell, in which relaxation of the axial stress and stored polymer deformation allows an extrudate to expand sideways after leaving the die. These are not explained by a scalar shear viscosity alone. A Newtonian extrudate can also swell through velocity-profile rearrangement, so the elastic contribution should not be identified with every instance of swelling.
The second-order fluid is a slow, weak-flow expansion of the objective constitutive history of an isotropic simple fluid. Material frame indifference requires objective tensor rates. For an incompressible flow, the leading isotropic stress is arbitrary pressure, the linear deviatoric term is , and at the next order the independent contributions can be represented by and an objective rate of . Isotropic scalar contributions are absorbed into the pressure. Their coefficients can be expressed through the two low-rate normal-stress differences, giving
Here is the lower-convected derivative, not a division by . This local expansion is appropriate when deformation and temporal change over the relevant viscoelastic relaxation time are small: both the Weissenberg number and the appropriate Deborah number must be small. It captures leading normal stresses in slow flows, but not arbitrary finite-strain history, rapid transients or strongly nonlinear shear thinning. In particular its restrictions are stronger than small-amplitude linear oscillatory response at arbitrary frequency.
For steady simple shear flow , use component-first , so the paper's is . The relevant tensors are
Substitution gives
Thus the first and second normal-stress differences are and , and the shear stress is .
For the velocity-preservation results, the definitions imply . Consequently the non-Newtonian stress can be written
where is the Jaumann derivative. Let solve the steady incompressible Stokes flow problem with the prescribed boundary velocities. The supplied identity says that is curl-free. If , then for a scalar on the ordinary simply connected flow domain. The momentum equation at is
Hence the Newtonian velocity itself is a solution of the second-order constitutive model, with altered pressure . For nontrivial topology one also needs the curl-free force to admit a single-valued pressure; this is implicit in the usual boundary-value problem.
On the regular weakly non-Newtonian branch, Uniqueness of Stokes flow fixes the velocity correction. At first order it solves homogeneous Stokes flow, with zero boundary velocity, after the gradient force has been absorbed into pressure. Multiplying its equation by the correction and integrating gives , hence the correction vanishes. Higher perturbative corrections vanish in turn because the previous velocities remain . The velocity is in this second-order-fluid solution; only the pressure and stresses change. This is Newtonian velocity preservation in a second-order fluid. It does not assert global uniqueness of distant nonlinear solution branches or exact equality for a real fluid whose higher-order constitutive terms have been omitted.
For a planar incompressible velocity , the rate-of-strain tensor has the form
All quantities are independent of , so . The extra quadratic term is therefore also a pressure gradient. Together with the supplied identity for the Jaumann derivative, the entire non-Newtonian force is a gradient for arbitrary . The same boundary-value and weak-branch argument proves for every such planar second-order-fluid flow with prescribed boundary velocities, without requiring . Specifying stresses or a free surface instead of velocities would not give the same conclusion automatically, because the extra stresses affect those boundary conditions.
With its material state fixed by a prescribed deformation history, the differential pom-pom model is a simple-fluid constitutive law. The stress depends on the local history of a material element through its molecular stretch and orientation, without gradients of that history between neighbouring elements. A differential representation does not prevent a material from being a simple fluid.
To see the history dependence explicitly, use the component-first velocity gradient , so the tensor evolution is . Let be the relative deformation gradient, satisfying and . Along a material trajectory, an integrating factor gives
Thus is a functional of the local deformation history and its prepared initial state. If the initial is a positive-definite matrix, it retains that property, so is well defined. Given this , the scalar stretch solves , where . Its variation of constants formula again depends only on that local history:
The differential pom-pom model also satisfies material frame indifference. Under an observer rotation, and transform as objective tensors, while is a scalar. The extra skew part of the transformed velocity gradient has zero contraction with symmetric , so the stretch equation is unchanged. The tensor evolution uses an upper-convected derivative, and the final stress transforms objectively. Initial values cannot be independently forgotten when specifying a finite-past experiment: a fully specified prepared state, such as rest, is part of the history specification.
Let two observers be related by , with Q a proper rotation matrix. A spatial second-rank tensor has material frame indifference if its values at corresponding events satisfy . This defines an objective second-rank tensor, and allows the observer's rotation to depend on time.
For Cauchy stress tensor, consider a material surface element with unit normal n and contact traction . A rigid observer change preserves its area and rotates both its normal and actual contact force: , . Thus for every n, proving . Fictitious body forces of an accelerated observer do not alter this transformation of physical contact traction.
To keep the vorticity convention explicit, write , and , the negative of the usual component-first spin tensor. Equivalently, with the derivative-index-first used in the paper, . Put , which is antisymmetric. The transformed velocity is , and direct differentiation gives
The additional observer spin cancels from the symmetric part, proving that the rate-of-strain tensor is objective.
Along the same material particle, differentiating gives
The two extra terms cancel those from . Moreover . Hence the complete objective time derivative satisfies
This proves covariance for every constant scalar ; changing the spin convention without changing the commutator sign would not. It is a Gordon--Schowalter derivative with the paper's slip-parameter convention.
For the Johnson-Segalman fluid, first use the standard uniaxial extensional flow , with . Here and E is diagonal. The steady conformation equation gives
with vanishing off-diagonal components on the stable steady branch. The tensile normal-stress difference is . Dividing by the extension rate gives the Johnson-Segalman extensional response:
The conformation tensor evolution in each principal direction is . Therefore a positive, attracting steady conformation requires both displayed denominators positive. For the first pole is at ; for it is at in the transverse components. At a pole the corresponding component grows linearly in time, and beyond it generically grows exponentially. The model has a finite-rate extensional catastrophe; the algebraic viscosity cannot be continued as a physical steady response past the first pole. At zero rate, , giving Trouton ratio three. For the polymer contribution to stress disappears and the response is simply Newtonian.
The question does not specify extension geometry. If a planar convention is intended instead, the same diagonal calculation gives , valid on the stable branch . The preceding boxed formula uses the standard uniaxial definition of extensional viscosity.
For simple shear flow , write , , , and . The xx, yy and xy components of the steady constitutive equation give
Substituting the first two relations into the third yields , with . Define the viscometric functions by , and , using x for flow, y for the shear gradient and z for vorticity. The Johnson-Segalman steady viscometric functions are therefore
The solvent creates no normal-stress differences in this flow. For nonzero , the fluid is shear thinning with positive first and negative second normal-stress differences.
To classify the stress curves, set and . The scaled shear stress is , and
The second term has minimum at . Thus the shear stress is monotone for and has a decreasing segment for . At equality it has a horizontal tangent but no decreasing interval. Below the threshold, its maximum and minimum occur at
with the smaller root giving the maximum. Negative-rate curves are obtained by odd reflection.
Figure 1.
Monotone, marginal and nonmonotone Johnson-Segalman shear-stress curves
. Details.
For small b, polymer stress dominates the low-rate response, while the solvent restores a positive high-rate slope. The Johnson-Segalman negative-slope shear threshold signals a constitutive instability of homogeneous shear: different local shear rates can carry the same shear stress, permitting shear banding. A stress plateau or a selected interface position cannot be inferred from the local curve alone; spatial regularization and boundary/history information matter. This limitation is illustrated in a primary diffusive Johnson-Segalman study. If , the scaling by b is inapplicable and the stress is just .
For the polar decomposition of an invertible real matrix, start with . For nonzero , , since makes invertible. The spectral theorem for real symmetric matrices gives an orthonormal basis with and . Define
Then is a positive-definite symmetric matrix, , and
because . Thus is an orthogonal matrix with positive determinant. Set ; it too is a positive-definite symmetric matrix, and . Moreover . This proves
The positive square root is unique: any positive symmetric square root of commutes with , preserves its eigenspaces and has the positive scalar square root on each of them. Hence , then and , are unique. These are the right stretch tensor, rotation and left stretch tensor of the polar decomposition in continuum mechanics.
A standard spectral strain measure is
Take , and , with strictly increasing; the customary stronger condition gives a regular one-to-one parameterization of all positive principal stretches. The zero condition makes a rigid rotation strain free, monotonicity distinguishes extension from contraction and prevents nonunit stretch from being strain free, and the derivative normalization gives the ordinary infinitesimal strain. Indeed, for ,
Under a superposed spatial rotation , and hence remain unchanged, giving material frame indifference. Choosing satisfies all these conditions and gives the Biot strain tensor
The meaning of work-conjugate stress and strain here is that a symmetric material tensor satisfies
for every admissible rate, with both powers measured per reference volume. To keep the nominal-stress index convention explicit, write , so and the power is . Differentiating gives , where is skew. Conservation of angular momentum gives symmetry of , or equivalently of . Therefore
The first term vanishes because a symmetric tensor has zero contraction with a skew tensor. Since , the symmetric Biot stress is
If the nominal stress is instead stored spatial-index first as , the same answer is . The symmetrization is essential: need not itself be symmetric.
Use both material isotropy and material frame indifference. The polar decomposition in continuum mechanics writes , where is the left stretch tensor. Isotropy removes the reference rotation: . Choose an orthonormal eigenbasis of . A half-turn about any principal axis leaves fixed but reverses appropriate off-diagonal entries of . Frame indifference therefore makes those entries zero. If a principal stretch is repeated, rotations in its eigenspace additionally force the stress to be isotropic there. Thus the principal stresses share the stretch axes: this proves coaxiality of isotropic elastic stress with and with .
For simple shear, the left Cauchy-Green deformation tensor is
Its principal axes make an angle with the coordinate axes satisfying when . If the two principal stresses are , rotating their diagonal matrix back gives
Consequently the universal simple-shear normal-stress identity is
Equivalently, it follows immediately from the off-diagonal entry of . At , the undeformed material has isotropic stress, so the identity holds there too. No particular elastic constitutive equation has been used.
Figure 1.
Principal stress and stretch axes of an isotropic elastic material under simple shear
. Details.
For a hyperelastic material . Material frame indifference of this first Piola-Kirchhoff law means
The spatial force components rotate under a superposed rigid rotation, whereas the reference normal does not.
If , differentiate with respect to in direction to obtain , hence the displayed stress transformation. Conversely, assume that stress transformation. For fixed , the derivative of with respect to vanishes. The positive-determinant matrix domain is connected, as follows from polar decomposition and the connectedness of and of the positive-definite cone. Thus , independent of . Iterating gives
The assumed lower bound on forces : either nonzero sign would tend to minus infinity for one direction of integer . This proves the required equivalence and explains the use of the lower-bound hypothesis.
In the frame-indifferent setting, isotropy means invariance under reference rotations as well: for . The distinction matters: left rotations encode changes of observer, and right rotations encode material symmetry.
An orientation-preserving singular value decomposition is , with and . Material frame indifference and isotropy remove , leaving a function of the stretches. Permuting the stretches using signed permutation rotations does not change the value, so is symmetric. Conversely a symmetric stretch function is unchanged by both left and right rotations, in particular is isotropic.
The eigenvalues of are . Its three principal invariants are
They determine the unordered positive eigenvalues as the roots of . Therefore a symmetric stretch function defines a well-defined on the admissible invariant triples. Conversely a function of these invariants is a symmetric stretch function, proving the equivalence of all three descriptions.
The printed domain of must be , since it takes three arguments. Also isotropy alone as right invariance would not imply the spectral representation without material frame indifference: for a fixed nonscalar symmetric positive-definite is right invariant but not generally objective. The equivalence here uses the frame-indifferent constitutive setting.
For the specific energy, Newton identities for the three eigenvalues gives , while . Thus
To differentiate it, use
These follow from , the displayed trace formula for , and . The three partial derivatives of are , and . The chain rule therefore gives
Finally , and . This is precisely the requested expression, with the coefficient of separated from the and cofactor terms. The positive sign of the term comes from the contribution in the energy.
Use a temperature-dependent strain energy density with different minimizing deformation gradients in the two crystal phases. Above the transition temperature its wells describe austenite; below it the wells are unions of martensitic variants. Left rotational orbits reflect material frame indifference, while the crystal's discrete material symmetries relate the variants. Minimizing the integral of this elastic energy, together with loading and boundary constraints, models the change of lattice shape. Compatibility restricts which low-energy gradients can meet continuously; fine compatible mixtures can accommodate macroscopic boundary shapes.
For the jump condition, write the two affine pieces as and . Continuity on the interface means
Taking differences along the interface gives for every tangent vector with . Decompose any vector as . Then
With this proves
Conversely this rank-one connection permits continuity by choosing . A coherent twin interface is such a compatible planar boundary between different martensitic variants, possibly after a rigid rotation of one variant. The rank-one condition is therefore the geometric compatibility condition for a simple twin.
For the unrotated pair, direct subtraction gives
so is one solution, with reference interface normal .
Put , and . Since , the stated is a proper rotation. Multiplication gives
Here and . Consequently
This is the second rank-one connection, now with normal . Because , the two rotations are distinct. The permitted assertion that there are at most two proves completeness.
Finally suppose is rank-one connected to , with . Left multiplication of their difference by preserves rank and gives . The classification just proved forces to be either or , hence or . The two requested matrices are therefore
Their connections are explicit: the first was calculated above, and . If desired the second matrix is
Figure 1.
The two compatible twin interfaces have reference normals in different directions
. Details.
The material symmetry group consists of invertible admissible reference transformations for which for every admissible . Its rotational part lies in ; a determinant-one reference convention restricts the full group to the corresponding special linear group. This right action is distinct from the spatial left action of material frame indifference.
The proper cube-rotation group has elements. Choose the image of one outward face normal in six ways, then the image of an adjacent perpendicular normal in four ways; orientation fixes the third direction. No reflections are included. For an isotropic material every proper rotation belongs to the material symmetry group.
Combine material isotropy with the physical frame-indifference condition. The singular value decomposition may be written with because . Left and right rotational invariance remove . Signed permutation rotations permit any permutation of the three diagonal stretches, so
Right invariance alone, without the usual material frame indifference assumption, would not suffice to remove spatial orientation.
The strict Baker-Ericksen inequalities say that larger distinct principal stretches carry larger principal Cauchy stresses:
A natural state of a hyperelastic material has zero stress. If two stretches differed, their equal zero stresses would contradict the strict inequality. Thus all three equal some , and polar decomposition gives , . A weak non-strict inequality alone would not prove this conclusion, so its strict convention is explicit here.
For the radial deformation put , , . Since ,
This symmetric tensor has radial eigenvalue and the repeated tangential eigenvalue . Both are positive in the open annulus under the stated monotonicity/nonnegativity conditions. Therefore these are its principal stretches. The two cases below establish radial zero-energy rigidity by different arguments.
A homogeneous hyperelastic material has a stored energy per reference volume depending on the local deformation gradient but not explicitly on the material point. Its first Piola-Kirchhoff response is
A superposed rigid rotation changes the observer's description without changing the energy of the deformation. Material frame indifference is therefore
This left-rotation invariance is distinct from a material isotropy assumption on right rotations. Differentiate it in an arbitrary matrix direction :
The Frobenius inner product then gives , proving .
For the converse, that stress covariance makes the derivative in of zero. The positive-determinant matrices form a connected set, as also follows from polar decomposition, so this difference is a constant independent of . Composition gives . For fixed , continuity of and compactness of make bounded. But for every positive integer, forcing . Thus stress covariance and frame indifference of the energy are equivalent. Compactness removes the possible additive energy constant in the converse.
A homogeneous hyperelastic material has a strain energy density per unit reference volume depending on the deformation gradient, with no explicit dependence on the reference configuration. For orientation-preserving gradients , its first Piola-Kirchhoff stress tensor is the derivative:
Equivalently the infinitesimal stored-energy change is . Reference and spatial indices are distinguished here by upper- and lowercase index letters.
The material symmetry group may be written . A volume-preserving relabelling convention restricts the candidate to ; the material isotropy criterion is the same. The material has material isotropy when , meaning for every proper rotation . If only rotational symmetries are included in the definition of the group, material isotropy means that group equals . This right-rotation invariance is distinct from material frame indifference, the left-rotation invariance .
The polar decomposition in continuum mechanics gives the unique factorizations
where are positive-definite symmetric matrices. Their common positive eigenvalues are the principal stretches, equivalently the singular values of . They describe the local stretch magnitudes after separating out a rigid rotation.
Take a singular value decomposition , with positive and . Such a choice is possible because . Left material frame indifference removes , and right material isotropy removes , giving .
Moreover is unchanged when the positive diagonal entries are permuted. Every permutation can be implemented by a signed permutation matrix of determinant one; the signs disappear in conjugating a diagonal matrix. Thus the energy depends only on the unordered principal stretches.
The three invariants determine precisely this unordered triple: the roots of are , and their positive square roots give the stretches. Consequently, on the set of admissible invariant triples, define to be . The preceding argument proves that this is well defined and that
Not every positive triple is realizable by three positive roots. Since the requested statement only asserts existence of a function on , extend arbitrarily on the nonrealizable triples; no choice there affects the formula for a deformation in continuum mechanics. Smooth invariant representations, where needed for differentiating the constitutive equation, are understood locally on the realizable set.