No Arabic abstract
Nonequilibrium steady states of vibrated inelastic frictionless spheres are investigated in quasi-two-dimensional confinement via molecular dynamics simulations. The phase diagram in the density-amplitude plane exhibits a fluidlike disordered and an ordered phase with threefold symmetry, as well as phase coexistence between the two. A dynamical mechanism exists that brings about metastable traveling clusters and at the same time stable clusters with anisotropic shapes at low vibration amplitude. Moreover, there is a square bilayer state which is connected to the fluid by BKTHNY-type two-step melting with an intermediate tetratic phase. The critical behavior of the two continuous transitions is studied in detail. For the fluid-tetratic transition, critical exponents of $tilde{gamma}=1.73$, $eta_4 approx 1/4$, and $z=2.05$ are obtained.
We report the observation of the homogenous nucleation of crystals in a dense layer of steel spheres confined between two horizontal plates vibrated vertically. Above a critical vibration amplitude, two-layer crystals with square symmetry were found to coexist in steady state with a surrounding granular liquid. By analogy to equilibrium hard sphere systems, the phase behavior can be explained through entropy maximization. However, dramatic non-equilibrium effects are present, including a significant difference in the granular temperatures of the two phases.
We report a combined experimental and simulation study of deformation-induced diffusion in compacted two-dimensional amorphous granular pillars, in which thermal fluctuations play negligible role. The pillars, consisting of bidisperse cylindrical acetal plastic particles standing upright on a substrate, are deformed uniaxially and quasistatically by a rigid bar moving at a constant speed. The plastic flow and particle rearrangements in the pillars are characterized by computing the best-fit affine transformation strain and non-affine displacement associated with each particle between two stages of deformation. The non-affine displacement exhibits exponential crossover from ballistic to diffusive behavior with respect to the cumulative deviatoric strain, indicating that in athermal granular packings, the cumulative deviatoric strain plays the role of time in thermal systems and drives effective particle diffusion. We further study the size-dependent deformation of the granular pillars by simulation, and find that different-sized pillars follow self-similar shape evolution during deformation. In addition, the yield stress of the pillars increases linearly with pillar size. Formation of transient shear lines in the pillars during deformation becomes more evident as pillar size increases. The width of these elementary shear bands is about twice the diameter of a particle, and does not vary with pillar size.
Time-periodic driving facilitates a wealth of novel quantum states and quantum engineering. The interplay of Floquet states and strong interactions is particularly intriguing, which we study using time-periodic fields in a one-dimensional quantum gas, modeled by a Luttinger liquid with periodically changing interactions. By developing a time-periodic operator algebra, we are able to solve and analyze the complete set of non-equilibrium steady states in terms of a Floquet-Bogoliubov ansatz and known analytic functions. Complex valued Floquet eigenenergies occur when multiples of driving frequency approximately match twice the dispersion energy, which correspond to resonant states. In experimental systems of Lieb-Liniger bosons we predict a change from powerlaw correlations to dominant collective density wave excitations at the corresponding wave numbers as the frequency is lowered below a characteristic cut-off.
We study the jamming phase diagram of sheared granular material using a novel Couette shear set-up with multi-ring bottom. The set-up uses small basal friction forces to apply a volume-conserving linear shear with no shear band to a granular system composed of frictional photoelastic discs. The set-up can generate arbitrarily large shear strain due to its circular geometry, and the shear direction can be reversed, allowing us to measure a feature that distinguishes shear-jammed from fragile states. We report systematic measurements of the stress, strain and contact network structure at phase boundaries that have been difficult to access by traditional experimental techniques, including the yield stress curve and the jamming curve close to $phi_{SJ}approx 0.74$, the smallest packing fraction supporting a shear-jammed state. We observe fragile states created under large shear strain over a range of $phi < phi_{SJ}$. We also find a transition in the character of the quasi-static steady flow centered around $phi_{SJ}$ on the yield curve as a function of packing fraction. Near $phi_{SJ}$, the average contact number, fabric anisotropy, and non-rattler fraction all show a change of slope. Above $phi_{F}approx 0.7$ the steady flow shows measurable deviations from the basal linear shear profile, and above $phi_capprox 0.78$ the flow is localized in a shear band.
We examine how systems in non-equilibrium steady states close to a continuous phase transition can still be described by a Landau potential if one forgoes the assumption of analyticity. In a system simultaneously coupled to several baths at different temperatures, the non-analytic potential arises from the different density of states of the baths. In periodically driven-dissipative systems, the role of multiple baths is played by a single bath transferring energy at different harmonics of the driving frequency. The mean-field critical exponents become dependent on the low-energy features of the two most singular baths. We propose an extension beyond mean field.