Preface to the viewpoint set on: Statistical mechanics and coarse graining of dislocation behavior for continuum plasticity

The technical communities of solid mechanics, mechanical engineering, computational mechanics, and materials science and engineering invest significant effort to develop physically-based models of material plasticity. However, a comprehensive macroscopic model based entirely on the unit mechanisms at microscopic scales remains elusive, especially for crystalline solids. Internationally, researchers have recently begun to build a new framework for crystal plasticity based on the statistical mechanics of dislocation motion and coarse graining of dislocation ensemble effects. We have assembled a viewpoint set that describes recent advances in theory, modeling and experiments, to which this article serves as an introduction.