Thermal collapse of a granular gas under gravity
Soft Condensed Matter
2009-11-11 v1 Other Condensed Matter
Fluid Dynamics
Abstract
Free cooling of a gas of inelastically colliding hard spheres represents a central paradigm of kinetic theory of granular gases. At zero gravity the temperature of a freely cooling homogeneous granular gas follows a power law in time. How does gravity, which brings inhomogeneity, affect the cooling? We combine molecular dynamics simulations, a numerical solution of hydrodynamic equations and an analytic theory to show that a granular gas cooling under gravity undergoes thermal collapse: it cools down to zero temperature and condenses on the bottom of the container in a finite time.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0605634,
title = {Thermal collapse of a granular gas under gravity},
author = {Dmitri Volfson and Baruch Meerson and Lev S. Tsimring},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0605634},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages, 12 eps figures, to appear in PRE