Phases of granular matter

TL;DR

This paper explores the phases of granular matter, focusing on the process of crystalline nucleation from disordered states, and proposes an alternative approach to the traditional statistical mechanics framework based on experimental insights.

Contribution

It introduces a new perspective on static granular matter, moving beyond Edwards and Oakeshott's statistical mechanics approach, inspired by recent experimental observations.

Findings

Experimental evidence of homogeneous nucleation in granular systems

Proposal of an alternative theoretical framework for granular matter

Insights into phase transitions in disordered granular media

Abstract

An understanding of homogeneous nucleation of crystalline structure from a disordered medium such as a liquid remains an important unsolved problem in condensed matter physics. Guided by the results from a number of experiments on granular and colloidal systems in the past two decades, including in particular observations of homogeneous nucleation in colloidal and granular systems, we suggest an alternative to the statistical mechanics approach to static granular matter initiated by Edwards and Oakeshott in 1989.