English

Characterization of a Freezing/Melting Transition in a Vibrated and Sheared Granular Medium

Soft Condensed Matter 2007-05-23 v1 Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

We describe experiments on monodisperse spherical particles in an annular cell geometry, vibrated from below and sheared from above. This system shows a freezing/melting transition such that under sufficient vibration a crystallized state is observed, which can be melted by sufficient shear. We characterize the hysteretic transition between these two states, and observe features reminiscent of both a jamming transition and critical phenomena.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0512549,
  title  = {Characterization of a Freezing/Melting Transition in a Vibrated and Sheared Granular Medium},
  author = {Karen E. Daniels and Robert P. Behringer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0512549},
  year   = {2007}
}