  The viscoplastic deformation (creep) of crystalline materials under constant
stress involves the motion of a large number of interacting dislocations.
Analytical methods and sophisticated `dislocation-dynamics' simulations have
proved very effective in the study of dislocation patterning, and have led to
macroscopic constitutive laws of plastic deformation. Yet, a statistical
analysis of the dynamics of an assembly of interacting dislocations has not
hitherto been performed. Here we report acoustic emission measurements on
stressed ice single crystals, the results of which indicate that dislocations
move in a scale-free intermittent fashion. This result is confirmed by
numerical simulations of a model of interacting dislocations that successfully
reproduces the main features of the experiment. We find that dislocations
generate a slowly evolving configuration landscape which coexists with rapid
collective rearrangements. These rearrangements involve a comparatively small
fraction of the dislocations and lead to an intermittent behavior of the net
plastic response. This basic dynamical picture appears to be a generic feature
in the deformation of many other materials. Moreover, it should provide a
framework for discussing fundamental aspects of plasticity, that goes beyond
standard mean-field approaches that see plastic deformation as a smooth laminar
flow.
