No Arabic abstract
Large scale simulations of two-dimensional bidisperse granular fluids allow us to determine spatial correlations of slow particles via the four-point structure factor $S_4(q,t)$. Both cases, elastic ($varepsilon=1$) as well as inelastic ($varepsilon < 1$) collisions, are studied. As the fluid approaches structural arrest, i.e. for packing fractions in the range $0.6 le phi le 0.805$, scaling is shown to hold: $S_4(q,t)/chi_4(t)=s(qxi(t))$. Both the dynamic susceptibility, $chi_4(tau_{alpha})$, as well as the dynamic correlation length, $xi(tau_{alpha})$, evaluated at the $alpha$ relaxation time, $tau_{alpha}$, can be fitted to a power law divergence at a critical packing fraction. The measured $xi(tau_{alpha})$ widely exceeds the largest one previously observed for hard sphere 3d fluids. The number of particles in a slow cluster and the correlation length are related by a robust power law, $chi_4(tau_{alpha}) approxxi^{d-p}(tau_{alpha})$, with an exponent $d-papprox 1.6$. This scaling is remarkably independent of $varepsilon$, even though the strength of the dynamical heterogeneity increases dramatically as $varepsilon$ grows.
We study the velocity autocorrelation function (VACF) of a driven granular fluid in the stationary state in 3 dimensions. As the critical volume fraction of the glass transition in the corresponding elastic system is approached, we observe pronounced cage effects in the VACF as well as a strong decrease of the diffusion constant. At moderate densities the VACF is shown to decay algebraically in time (t^{-3/2}) like in a molecular fluid, as long as the driving conserves momentum locally.
The terminology granular matter refers to systems with a large number of hard objects (grains) of mesoscopic size ranging from millimeters to meters. Geological examples include desert sand and the rocks of a landslide. But the scope of such systems is much broader, including powders and snow, edible products such a seeds and salt, medical products like pills, and extraterrestrial systems such as the surface regolith of Mars and the rings of Saturn. The importance of a fundamental understanding for granular matter properties can hardly be overestimated. Practical issues of current concern range from disaster mitigation of avalanches and explosions of grain silos to immense economic consequences within the pharmaceutical industry. In addition, they are of academic and conceptual importance as well as examples of systems far from equilibrium. Under many conditions of interest, granular matter flows like a normal fluid. In the latter case such flows are accurately described by the equations of hydrodynamics. Attention is focused here on the possibility for a corresponding hydrodynamic description of granular flows. The tools of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, developed over the past fifty years for fluids composed of atoms and molecules, are applied here to a system of grains for a fundamental approach to both qualitative questions and practical quantitative predictions. The nonlinear Navier-Stokes equations and expressions for the associated transport coefficients are obtained.
We consider the stationary state of a fluid comprised of inelastic hard spheres or disks under the influence of a random, momentum-conserving external force. Starting from the microscopic description of the dynamics, we derive a nonlinear equation of motion for the coherent scattering function in two and three space dimensions. A glass transition is observed for all coefficients of restitution, epsilon, at a critical packing fraction, phi_c(epsilon), below random close packing. The divergence of timescales at the glass-transition implies a dependence on compression rate upon further increase of the density - similar to the cooling rate dependence of a thermal glass. The critical dynamics for coherent motion as well as tagged particle dynamics is analyzed and shown to be non-universal with exponents depending on space dimension and degree of dissipation.
Our first very wide survey of the supercritical phase diagram and its key properties reveals a universal interrelation between dynamics and thermodynamics and an unambiguous transition between liquidlike and gaslike states. This is seen in the master plot showing a collapse of the data representing the dependence of specific heat on key dynamical parameters in the system for many different paths on the phase diagram. As a result, the observed transition is path-independent. We call it a c-transition due to the c-shaped curve parameterizing the dependence of the specific heat on key dynamical parameters. The c-transition has a fixed inversion point and provides a new structure to the phase diagram, operating deep in the supercritical state (up to at least 2000 times the critical pressure and 50 times the critical temperature). The data collapse and path independence as well as the existence of a special inversion point on the phase diagram are indicative of either of a sharp crossover or a new phase transition in the deeply supercritical state.
The spontaneous symmetry breaking taking place in the direction perpendicular to the energy flux in a dilute vibrofluidized granular system is investigated, using both a hydrodynamic description and simulation methods. The latter include molecular dynamics and direct Monte Carlo simulation of the Boltzmann equation. A marginal stability analysis of the hydrodynamic equations, carried out in the WKB approximation, is shown to be in good agreement with the simulation results. The shape of the hydrodynamic profiles beyond the bifurcation is discussed.