Planar energetics do not determine twin persistence in nanocrystalline aluminium

Abstract

Planar energetics are the standard descriptors of twinnability in face-centred cubic metals and the usual validation targets for interatomic potentials. Here we show that they do not determine whether deformation twins persist in nanocrystalline aluminium. Two machine-learned potentials reproducing the same zero-load slip curves and closely spaced layered energy surfaces predict, from a common separated-fault precursor under identical loading, retained twin coverage of 64\% and 14\%. The divergence traces to forces within distorted partial cores acting along the trailing translation that would remove an outer fault. Planar energetics do set the margin: an outer fault more than halves the incremental barrier for middle-plane shear, yet twin completion and fault removal remain separated by only 10--21 mJ m\textsuperscript{-2}. Whether an assembled twin persists is decided instead by the orientation of local traction relative to the full-slip bisector and by the arrival order of partial-slip fronts from the grain-boundary network.