Melting a granular glass by cooling
Soft Condensed Matter
2013-02-19 v2
Abstract
Driven granular systems readily form glassy phases at high particle volume fractions and low driving amplitudes. We use computer simulations of a driven granular glass to evidence a re-entrance melting transition into a fluid state, which, contrary to intuition, occurs by \emph{reducing} the amplitude of the driving. This transition is accompanied by anomalous particle dynamics and super-diffusive behavior on intermediate time-scales. We highlight the special role played by frictional interactions, which help particles to escape their glassy cages. Such an effect is in striking contrast to what friction is expected to do: reduce particle mobility by making them stick.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1210.1945,
title = {Melting a granular glass by cooling},
author = {Jan Plagge and Claus Heussinger},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1210.1945},
year = {2013}
}