  We have studied shear deformation of binary Lennard-Jones glasses to
investigate the extent to which the transient part of the stress strain curves
is invariant when the thermodynamic state point is varied along an isomorph.
Shear deformations were carried out on glass samples of varying stability,
determined by cooling rate, and at varying strain rates, at a state point deep
in the glass. Density changes up to and exceeding a factor of two were made. We
investigated several different methods for generating isomorphs but none of the
previously developed methods could generate sufficiently precise isomorphs
given the large density changes and non-equilibrium situation. Instead, the
temperatures for these higher densities were chosen to give state points
isomorphic to the starting state point by requiring the steady state flow
stress for isomorphic state points to be invariant in reduced units. In
contrast to the steady state flow stress, we find that the peak stress on the
stress strain curve is not invariant. The peak stress decreases by a few
percent for each ten percent increase in density, although the differences
decrease with increasing density. Analysis of strain profiles and non-affine
motion during the transient phase suggests that the root of the changes in peak
stress is a varying tendency to form shear bands, with the largest tendency
occurring at the lowest densities. We argue that this reflects the effective
steepness of the potential; a higher effective steepness gives a greater
tendency to form shear bands.
