Eur. Phys. J. E (2016) 39: 62
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2016-16062-1

Regular Article

On the coarsening dynamics of a granular lattice gas

GRASP, Physics Department B5a, University of Liège, B-4000, Liège, Belgium

^* e-mail: eric.opsomer@ulg.ac.be

Received: 9 March 2016
Revised: 2 June 2016
Accepted: 6 June 2016
Published online: 24 June 2016

Abstract

We investigated experimentally and theoretically the dynamics of a driven granular gas on a square lattice and discovered two characteristic regimes: Initially, given the dissipative nature of the collisions, particles move erratically through the system and start to gather on selected sites called traps. Later on, the formation of those traps leads to a strong decrease of the grain mobility and slows down dramatically the dynamics of the entire system. We realize detailed measurements linking a trap's stability to the global evolution of the system and propose a model reproducing the entire dynamics of the system. Our work emphasizes the complexity of coarsening dynamics of dilute granular systems.