Thermostatistics of a single particle on a granular dimer lattice: influence of defects

TL;DR

This study investigates the statistical behavior of a single particle on a granular lattice, revealing how defects in the first layer influence velocity distributions and energy fluctuations through experiments and simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a combined experimental and simulation approach to analyze how defects affect thermostatistical properties of a particle on a granular lattice.

Findings

Non-Gaussian velocity statistics due to defects

Velocity distributions are spatially homogeneous

Defects influence collision frequency and energy injection

Abstract

We study the thermostatistical fluctuations of a single Delrin monomer on a granular lattice of dimer particles using both experiment and simulation. The goal is to examine the collision frequency, energy injection, and sidewall effects on a single second-layer particle in a bi-layer granular gas experiment. Non-Gaussian velocity statistics are observed for the single particle of the top layer and result from the presence of defects in the first layer. These deviations are not directly due to the presence of the boundary wall, since the form of velocity distributions is quite spatially homogeneous, but are the consequence of the presence of a few mobile defects in the first layer.