Structure most frequently constrains material behavior, resulting in the coupling between structural and dynamical properties. Using numerical simulations, we show that single-particle elasticity can cause the breakdown of this coupling, enabling liquidlike dynamics within crystalline configurations. Our findings reveal that the elastic heterogeneity of the many-particle system is key to this behavior, allowing the transition from a disordered to an ordered structure, where particles remain mobile; the resultant ordered material is thus characterized by the presence of rearrangements, a characteristic feature of the liquid state. Our findings clearly identify elasticity as a definitive aspect for achieving the decoupling of structure and dynamics.

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• Phase transitions
• Structural order parameter
• Colloids
• Brownian dynamics