Artículo de revista
Liquid-solid-like transition in quasi-one-dimensional driven granular media
Fecha
2008-03Registro en:
NATURE PHYSICS Volume: 4 Issue: 3 Pages: 249-254 Published: MAR 2008
1745-2473
10.1038/nphys884
Autor
Clerc Gavilán, Marcel
Cordero Simunovic, Aliro
Dunstan, Jocelyn
Huff, K.
Mujica Fernández, Nicolás
Risso, Dino
Varas, G.
Institución
Resumen
The theory of non-ideal gases at thermodynamic equilibrium, for instance the van der Waals gas model, has played a central role in our understanding of coexisting phases, as well as the transitions between them. In contrast, the theory fails with granular matter because collisions between the grains dissipate energy, and their macroscopic size renders thermal fluctuations negligible. When a mass of grains is subjected to mechanical vibration, it can make a transition to a fluid state. In this state, granular matter exhibits patterns and instabilities that resemble those of molecular fluids. Here, we report a granular solid-liquid phase transition in a vibrating granular monolayer. Unexpectedly, the transition is mediated by waves and is triggered by a negative compressibility, as for van der Waals phase coexistence, although the system does not satisfy the hypotheses used to understand atomic systems. The dynamic behaviour that we observe-coalescence, coagulation and wave propagation-is common to a wide class of phase transitions. We have combined experimental, numerical and theoretical studies to build a theoretical framework for this transition.