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.
Recent experiments with a rotating probe immersed in weakly fluidized granular materials show a complex behavior on a wide range of timescales. Viscous-like relaxation at high frequency is accom- panied by an almost harmonic dynamical trapping at intermediate times, with possibly anomalous long time behavior in the form of super-diffusion. Inspired by the Itinerant Oscillator model for dif- fusion in molecular liquids, and other models with coupled thermostats acting at different timescales, here we discuss a new model able to account for fast viscous relaxation, dynamical trapping and super-d…
Recent experiments with rotational diffusion of a probe in a vibrated granular media revealed a rich scenario, ranging from the dilute gas to the dense liquid with cage effects and an unexpected superdiffusive behavior at large times. Here we setup a simulation that reproduces quantitatively the experimental observations and allows us to investigate the properties of the host granular medium, a task not feasible in the experiment. We discover a persistent collective rotational mode which emerges at high density and low granular temperature: a macroscopic fraction of the medium slowly rotates, …
We report an experimental investigation of the caging motion in a uniformly heated granular fluid, for a wide range of filling fractions, $ϕ$. At low $ϕ$ the classic diffusive behavior of a fluid is observed. However, as $ϕ$ is increased, temporary cages develop and particles become increasingly trapped by their neighbors. We statistically analyze particle trajectories and observe a number of robust features typically associated with dense molecular liquids and colloids. Even though our monodisperse and quasi-2D system is known to not exhibit a glass transition, we still observe many of the pr…
The long-time behaviors of the velocity autocorrelation function (VACF) for granular flows based on the optimal velocity fluid model are investigated theoretically. It is found the long-time tail of VACF disappears in a granular flow under the gravity.
Modeling collective motion in non-conservative systems, such as granular materials, is difficult since a general microscopic-to-macroscopic approach is not available: there is no Hamiltonian, no known stationary densities in phase space, not a known small set of relevant variables. Phenomenological coarse-grained models are a good alternative, provided that one has identified a few slow observables and collected a sufficient amount of data for their dynamics. Here we study the case of a vibrofluidized dense granular material. The experimental study of a tracer, dispersed into the media, showed…
The long-time behavior of the current auto-correlation functions for the velocity, the shear stress and the heat flux is investigated in freely cooling granular gases. It is found that the correlation functions for the velocity and the shear stress have the long-time tails obeying $τ^{-d/2}$, while the correlation function of heat flux decays as $τ^{-(d+2)/2} \exp(-ζ^* τ)$ with the dimensionless cooling rate $ζ^*$, the spatial dimension $d$ and the scaled time $τ$ in terms of the collision frequency. The result of our numerical simulation of the freely cooling granular gases is consistent with…
I derive a mode-coupling theory for the velocity autocorrelation function, ψ(t), in a fluid of randomly driven inelastic hard spheres far from equilibrium. With this, I confirm a conjecture from simulations that the velocity autocorrelation function decays algebraically, ψ(t) ~ t^{-3/2}, if momentum is conserved. I show that the slow decay is due to the coupling to transverse currents.
Unified description on the long-time tail of velocity autocorrelation function and the long-range correlation for the equal-time spatial correlation functions is developed based on the generalized fluctuating hydrodynamics. The cross-over of the long-time tail from $t^{-3/2}$ to $t^{-5/2}$ is predicted independent of the density, and the equal-time spatial density correlation function and the equal-time spatial velocity correlation function respectively satisfy $r^{-11/3}$ and $r^{-5/3}$ for large $r$ limit.
The velocity distribution function of granular gases in the homogeneous cooling state as well as some heated granular gases decays for large velocities as $f\propto\exp(- {\rm const.} v)$. That is, its high-energy tail is overpopulated as compared with the Maxwell distribution. At the present time, there is no theory to describe the influence of the tail on the kinetic characteristics of granular gases. We develop an approach to quantify the overpopulated tail and analyze its impact on granular gas properties, in particular on the cooling coefficient. We observe and explain anomalously slow re…
We study velocity statistics of electrostatically driven granular gases. For two different experiments: (i) non-magnetic particles in a viscous fluid and (ii) magnetic particles in air, the velocity distribution is non-Maxwellian, and its high-energy tail is exponential, P(v) ~ exp(-|v|). This behavior is consistent with kinetic theory of driven dissipative particles. For particles immersed in a fluid, viscous damping is responsible for the exponential tail, while for magnetic particles, long-range interactions cause the exponential tail. We conclude that velocity statistics of dissipative gas…
We numerically study the distribution P(f) of contact forces in frictionless bead packs, by averaging over the ensemble of all possible force network configurations. We resort to umbrella sampling to resolve the asymptotic decay of P(f) for large f, and determine P(f) down to values of order 10^{-45} for ordered and disordered systems in two and three dimensions. Our findings unambiguously show that, in the ensemble approach, the force distributions decay much faster than exponentially: P(f) ~ exp(-f^α), with alpha \approx 2.0 for 2D systems, and alpha \approx 1.7 for 3D systems.
In contrast to molecular gases, granular gases are characterized by inelastic collisions and require therefore permanent driving to maintain a constant kinetic energy. The kinetic theory of granular gases describes how the average velocity of the particles decreases after the driving is shut off. Moreover it predicts that the rescaled particle velocity distribution will approach a stationary state with overpopulated high-velocity tails as compared to the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution. While this fundamental theoretical result was reproduced by numerical simulations, an experimental confirmati…
We present a universal description of the velocity distribution function of granular gases, $f(v)$, valid for both, small and intermediate velocities where $v$ is close to the thermal velocity and also for large $v$ where the distribution function reveals an exponentially decaying tail. By means of large-scale Monte Carlo simulations and by kinetic theory we show that the deviation from the Maxwell distribution in the high-energy tail leads to small but detectable variation of the cooling coefficient and to extraordinary large relaxation time.
We study inelastic gases in two dimensions using event-driven molecular dynamics simulations. Our focus is the nature of the stationary state attained by rare injection of large amounts of energy to balance the dissipation due to collisions. We find that under such extreme driving, with the injection rate much smaller than the collision rate, the velocity distribution has a power-law high energy tail. The numerically measured exponent characterizing this tail is in excellent agreement with predictions of kinetic theory over a wide range of system parameters. We conclude that driving by rare bu…
Using particle simulations of the uniform shear flow of a rough dilute granular gas, we show that the translational and rotational velocities are strongly correlated in direction, but there is no orientational correlation-induced singularity at perfectly smooth ($β=-1$) and rough ($β=1$) limits for elastic collisions ($e=1$); both the translational and rotational velocity distribution functions remain close to a Gaussian for these two limiting cases. Away from these two limits, the orientational as well as spatial velocity correlations are responsible for the emergence of non-Gaussian high vel…
A long-standing issue in the area of granular media is the tail of the force distribution, in particular whether this is exponential, Gaussian, or even some other form. Here we resolve the issue for the case of the force network ensemble in two dimensions. We demonstrate that conservation of the total area of a reciprocal tiling, a direct consequence of local force balance, is crucial for predicting the local stress distribution. Maximizing entropy while conserving the tiling area and total pressure leads to a distribution of local pressures with a generically Gaussian tail that is in excellen…
We study experimentally the particle velocity fluctuations in an electrostatically driven dilute granular gas. The experimentally obtained velocity distribution functions have strong deviations from Maxwellian form in a wide range of parameters. We have found that the tails of the distribution functions are consistent with a stretched exponential law with typical exponents of the order 3/2. Molecular dynamic simulations shows qualitative agreement with experimental data. Our results suggest that this non-Gaussian behavior is typical for most inelastic gases with both short and long range inter…
Steady state dynamics of clustering, long range order, and inelastic collapse are experimentally observed in vertically shaken granular monolayers. At large vibration amplitudes, particle correlations show only short range order like equilibrium 2D hard sphere gases. Lowering the amplitude "cools" the system, resulting in a dramatic increase in correlations leading either to clustering or an ordered state. Further cooling forms a collapse: a condensate of motionless balls co-existing with a less dense gas. Measured velocity distributions are non-Gaussian, showing nearly exponential tails.
We study experimentally statistical properties of the opening times of knots in vertically vibrated granular chains. Our measurements are in good qualitative and quantitative agreement with a theoretical model involving three random walks interacting via hard core exclusion in one spatial dimension. In particular, the knot survival probability follows a universal scaling function which is independent of the chain length, with a corresponding diffusive characteristic time scale. Both the large-exit-time and the small-exit-time tails of the distribution are suppressed exponentially, and the corr…
The problem of the steady-state velocity distribution in a driven inelastic Maxwell model of shaken granular material is revisited. Numerical solution of the master equation and analytical arguments show that the model has bilateral exponential velocity tails ($P(v)\sim e^{-|v|/\sqrt D}$), where $D$ is the amplitude of the noise. Previous study of this model predicted Gaussian tails ($P(v)\sim e^{-av^2}$).
Experiments quantifying the rotational and translational motion of particles in a dense, driven, 2D granular gas floating on an air table reveal that kinetic energy is divided equally between the two translational and one rotational degrees of freedom. This equipartition persists when the particle properties, confining pressure, packing density, or spatial ordering are changed. While the translational velocity distributions are the same for both large and small particles, the angular velocity distributions scale with the particle radius. The probability distributions of all particle velocities…
Kinetic properties of a granular gas of viscoelastic particles in a homogeneous cooling state are studied analytically and numerically. We employ the most recent expression for the velocity-dependent restitution coefficient for colliding viscoelastic particles, which allows to describe systems with large inelasticity. In contrast to previous studies, the third coefficient a3 of the Sonine polynomials expansion of the velocity distribution function is taken into account. We observe a complicated evolution of this coefficient. Moreover, we find that a3 is always of the same order of magnitude as…
We study dynamics of freely cooling granular gases in two-dimensions using large-scale molecular dynamics simulations. We find that for dilute systems the typical kinetic energy decays algebraically with time, E(t) ~ t^{-1}, in the long time limit. Asymptotically, velocity statistics are characterized by a universal Gaussian distribution, in contrast with the exponential high-energy tails characterizing the early homogeneous regime. We show that in the late clustering regime particles move coherently as typical local velocity fluctuations, Delta v, are small compared with the typical velocity,…
From event-driven simulations of a gravity-driven channel flow of inelastic hard-disks, we show that the velocity distribution function remains close to a Gaussian for a wide range densities (even when the Knudsen number is of order one) if the walls are smooth and the particle collisions are nearly elastic. For dense flows, a transition from a Gaussian to a power-law distribution for the high velocity tails occurs with increasing dissipation in the center of the channel, irrespective of wall-roughness. For a rough wall, the near-wall distribution functions are distinctly different from those …
We present experimental results on the velocity statistics of a uniformly heated granular fluid, in a quasi-2D configuration. We find the base state, as measured by the single particle velocity distribution $f(c)$, to be universal over a wide range of filling fractions and only weakly dependent on all other system parameters. There is a consistent overpopulation in the distribution's tails, which scale as $f\propto\exp(\mathrm{const.}\times c^{-3/2})$. More importantly, the high probability central region of $f(c)$, at low velocities, deviates from a Maxwell-Boltzmann by a second order Sonine …
Direct Monte Carlo simulations of the Enskog-Boltzmann equation for a spatially uniform system of smooth inelastic spheres are performed. In order to reach a steady state, the particles are assumed to be under the action of an external driving force which does work to compensate for the collisional loss of energy. Three different types of external driving are considered: (a) a stochastic force, (b) a deterministic force proportional to the particle velocity and (c) a deterministic force parallel to the particle velocity but constant in magnitude. The Enskog-Boltzmann equation in case (b) is fu…
We construct the equations of motion for the coupled dynamics of order parameter and concentration for the nematic phase of driven particles on a solid surface, and show that they imply (i) giant number fluctuations, with a standard deviation proportional to the mean and (ii) long-time tails $\sim t^{-d/2}$ in the autocorrelation of the particle velocities in $d$ dimensions despite the absence of a hydrodynamic velocity field. Our predictions can be tested in experiments on aggregates of amoeboid cells as well as on layers of agitated granular matter.
The granular gas is a paradigm for understanding the effects of inelastic interactions in granular materials. Kinetic theory provides a general theoretical framework for describing the granular gas. Its central result is that the tail of the velocity distribution of a driven granular gas is a stretched exponential that, counterintuitively, decays slower than that of the corresponding elastic gas in equilibrium. However, a derivation of this result starting from a microscopic model is lacking. Here, we obtain analytical results for a microscopic model for a granular gas where particles with two…
The long-time behaviors of the velocity autocorrelation function $C(t)$ for sheared fluids ^M are investigated theoretically and numerically. It is found the existence of the cross-overs of^M $C(t)$ from $t^{-d/2}$ to $t^{-d}$ ^M in sheared fluids of elastic particles without any thermostat, and from $t^{-d/2}$ to $t^{-(d+2)/2}$ ^M in both sheared fluids of elastic particles with a thermostat and sheared granular fluids,^M where $d$ is the spatial dimension. ^M The validity of the predictions has been confirmed by^M our numerical simulations.
A large number (~10,000) of uniform stainless steel balls comprising less than one layer coverage on a vertically shaken plate provides a rich system for the study of excited granular media. Viewed from above, the horizontal motion in the layer shows interesting collective behavior as a result of inelastic particle-particle collisions. Clusters appear as localized fluctuations from purely random density distributions, as demonstrated by increased particle correlations. The clusters grow as the medium is "cooled" by reducing the rate of energy input. Further reduction of the energy input leads …
The homogeneous cooling state (HCS) of a granular gas described by the inelastic Boltzmann equation is reconsidered. As usual, particles are taken as inelastic hard disks or spheres, but now the coefficient of normal restitution $α$ is allowed to take negative values $α\in[-1,1]$, a simple way of modeling more complicated inelastic interactions. The distribution function of the HCS is studied at the long-time limit, as well as for intermediate times. At the long-time limit, the relevant information of the HCS is given by a scaling distribution function $ϕ_s(c)$, where the time dependence occur…
We report a general class of steady and transient states of granular gases. We find that the kinetic theory of inelastic gases admits stationary solutions with a power-law velocity distribution, f(v) ~ v^(-sigma). The exponent sigma is found analytically and depends on the spatial dimension, the degree of inelasticity, and the homogeneity degree of the collision rate. Driven steady-states, with the same power-law tail and a cut-off can be maintained by injecting energy at a large velocity scale, which then cascades to smaller velocities where it is dissipated. Associated with these steady-stat…
We use a three-dimensional molecular dynamics simulation to study the single particle distribution function of a dilute granular gas driven by a vertically oscillating plate at high accelerations ($15g - 90g$). We find that the density and the temperature fields are essentially time-invariant above a height of about 35 particle diameters, where typically 20% of the grains are contained. These grains form the nonequilibrium steady state granular gas with a Knudsen number unity or greater. In the steady state region, the distribution function of horizontal velocities (scaled by the local horizon…
We use event driven simulations to analyze glassy dynamics as a function of density and energy dissipation in a two-dimensional bidisperse granular fluid under stationary conditions. Clear signatures of a glass transition are identified, such as an increase of relaxation times over several orders of magnitude. As the inelasticity is increased, the glass transition is shifted to higher densities and the precursors of the transition become less and less pronounced -- in agreement with a recent mode-coupling theory. We analyze the long-time tails of the velocity autocorrelation and discuss its co…
Our experiments and three-dimensional molecular dynamics simulations of particles confined to a vertical monolayer by closely spaced frictional walls (sidewalls) yield velocity distributions with non-Gaussian tails and a peak near zero velocity. Simulations with frictionless sidewalls are not peaked. Thus interactions between particles and their container are an important determinant of the shape of the distribution and should be considered when evaluating experiments on a tightly constrained monolayer of particles.
We study the steady state properties of a 2D granular mixture in the presence of energy driving by employing simple analytical estimates and Direct Simulation Monte Carlo. We adopt two different driving mechanisms: a) a homogeneous heat bath with friction and b) a vibrating boundary (thermal or harmonic) in the presence of gravity. The main findings are: the appearance of two different granular temperatures, one for each species; the existence of overpopulated tails in the velocity distribution functions and of non trivial spatial correlations indicating the spontaneous formation of cluster ag…
We present event-driven simulations of a granular gas of inelastic hard disks with incomplete normal restitution in two dimensions between vibrating walls (without gravity). We measure hydrodynamic quantities such as the stress tensor, density and temperature profiles, as well as velocity distributions. Relating the local pressure to the local temperature and local density, we construct a local constitutive equation. For strong inelasticities the local constitutive relation depends on global system parameters, like the volume fraction and the aspect ratio. For moderate inelasticities the const…
We consider the steady states of a driven inelastic Maxwell gas consisting of two types of particles with scalar velocities. Motivated by experiments on bilayers where only one layer is driven, we focus on the case when only one of the two types of particles are driven externally, with the other species receiving energy only through inter-particle collision. The velocity $v$ of a particle that is driven is modified to $-r_w v+η$, where $r_w$ parameterises the dissipation upon the driving and the noise $η$ is taken from a fixed distribution. We characterize the statistics for small velocities b…
We study the single particle velocity distribution for a granular fluid of inelastic hard spheres or disks, using the Enskog-Boltzmann equation, both for the homogeneous cooling of a freely evolving system and for the stationary state of a uniformly heated system, and explicitly calculate the fourth cumulant of the distribution. For the undriven case, our result agrees well with computer simulations of Brey et al. \cite{brey}. Corrections due to non-Gaussian behavior on cooling rate and stationary temperature are found to be small at all inelasticities. The velocity distribution in the uniform…
The velocity distribution of a granular gas is analyzed in terms of the Sonine polynomials expansion. We derive an analytical expression for the third Sonine coefficient a_3. In contrast to frequently used assumptions this coefficient is of the same order of magnitude as the second Sonine coefficient a_2. For small inelasticity the theoretical result is in good agreement with numerical simulations. The next-order Sonine coefficients a_4, a_5 and a_6 are determined numerically. While these coefficients are negligible for small dissipation, their magnitude grows rapidly with increasing inelastic…
We report an experimental study of a dilute "gas" of magnetic particles subjected to a vertical alternating magnetic field in a 3D container. Due to the torque exerted by the field on the magnetic moment of each particle, a spatially homogeneous and chaotic forcing is reached where only rotational motions are driven. This forcing differs significantly from boundary-driven systems used in most previous experimental studies on non equilibrium dissipative granular gases. Here, no cluster formation occurs, and the equation of state displays strong analogy with the usual gas one apart from a geomet…
We study the formation of high energy tails in a one-dimensional kinetic model for granular gases, the so-called Inelastic Maxwell Model. We introduce a time- discretized version of the stochastic process, and show that continuous time implies larger fluctuations of the particles energies. This is due to a statistical relation between the number of inelastic collisions undergone by a particle and its average energy. This feature is responsible for the high energy tails in the model, as shown by computer simulations and by analytical calculations on a linear Lorentz model.
We revisit effective scenarios for the origin of heavy tails in stationary velocity distributions. A first analysis combines localization with diffusive acceleration. That gets realized in space plasmas to find the so-called kappa-distributions having power-law decay at high speeds. There, localization at high energy already takes place for the reversible dynamics but becomes effective by an active diffusion in velocity space. A model for vibrating granular gases and giving rise to stretched exponential tails is also briefly discussed, where negative friction is the energizer. In all cases, th…
We investigate a Maxwell model of inelastic granular mixture under the influence of a stochastic driving and obtain its steady state properties in the context of classical kinetic theory. The model is studied analytically by computing the moments up to the eighth order and approximating the distributions by means of a Sonine polynomial expansion method. The main findings concern the existence of two different granular temperatures, one for each species, and the characterization of the distribution functions, whose tails are in general more populated than those of an elastic system. These analy…
The nature of the velocity distribution of a driven granular gas, though well studied, is unknown as to whether it is universal or not, and if universal what it is. We determine the tails of the steady state velocity distribution of a driven inelastic Maxwell gas, which is a simple model of a granular gas where the rate of collision between particles is independent of the separation as well as the relative velocity. We show that the steady state velocity distribution is non-universal and depends strongly on the nature of driving. The asymptotic behavior of the velocity distribution are shown t…
We study the Boltzmann equation for a space-homogeneous gas of inelastic hard spheres, with a diffusive term representing a random background forcing. Under the assumption that the initial datum is a nonnegative $L^2$ function, with bounded mass and kinetic energy (second moment), we prove the existence of a solution to this model, which instantaneously becomes smooth and rapidly decaying. Under a weak additional assumption of bounded third moment, the solution is shown to be unique. We also establish the existence (but not uniqueness) of a stationary solution. In addition we show that the hig…
We study the high-energy asymptotics of the steady velocity distributions for model systems of granular media in various regimes. The main results obtained are integral estimates of solutions of the hard-sphere Boltzmann equations, which imply that the velocity distribution functions $f(v)$ behave in a certain sense as $C\exp(-r|v|^s)$ for $|v|$ large. The values of $s$, which we call {\em the orders of tails}, range from $s=1$ to $s=2$, depending on the model of external forcing. The method we use is based on the moment inequalities and careful estimating of constants in the integral form of …
We dynamically construct the interaction network in a granular gas, using the sequence of collisions collected in an MD event driven simulation of inelastic hard disks from time 0 till time t. The network is decomposed into its k-core structure: particles in a core of index k have collided at least k times with other particles in the same core. The difference between cores k+1 and k is the so-called k-shell, and the set of all shells is a complete and on-overlapping decomposition of the system. Because of energy dissipation, the gas cools down: its initial spatially homogeneous dynamics, chara…
We determine the asymptotic behavior of the tails of the steady state velocity distribution of a homogeneously driven granular gas comprising of particles having a scalar velocity. A pair of particles undergo binary inelastic collisions at a rate that is proportional to a power of their relative velocity. At constant rate, each particle is driven by multiplying its velocity by a factor $-r_w$ and adding a stochastic noise. When $r_w <1$, we show analytically that the tails of the velocity distribution are primarily determined by the noise statistics, and determine analytically all the paramete…
We examine the structure of the distribution of single particle displacements (van-Hove function) in a broad class of materials close to glass and jamming transitions. In a wide time window comprising structural relaxation, van-Hove functions reflect the coexistence of slow and fast particles (dynamic heterogeneity). The tails of the distributions exhibit exponential, rather than Gaussian, decay. We argue that this behavior is universal in glassy materials and should be considered the analog, in space, of the stretched exponential decay of time correlation functions. We introduce a dynamical m…
