  Colloidal gel networks are disordered elastic solids that can form even in
extremely dilute particle suspensions. With interaction strengths comparable to
the thermal energy, their stress-bearing network can locally restructure via
breaking and reforming interparticle bonds. This allows for yielding,
self-healing, and adaptive mechanics under deformation. Designing such features
requires controlling stress transmission through the complex structure of the
gel and this is challenging because the link between local restructuring and
overall response of the network is still missing. Here, we use a space resolved
analysis of dynamical processes and numerical simulations of a model gel to
gain insight into this link. We show that consequences of local bond breaking
propagate along the gel network over distances larger than the average mesh
size. This provides the missing microscopic explanation for why nonlocal
constitutive relations are necessary to rationalize the nontrivial mechanical
response of colloidal gels.
