Injected power and entropy flow in a heated granular gas

TL;DR

This paper investigates the distribution of injected power in a heated granular gas, combining numerical simulations and kinetic theory, and introduces a new quantity satisfying fluctuation relations.

Contribution

It provides a kinetic theory framework for power distribution and proposes a new measurable quantity that obeys fluctuation relations in granular gases.

Findings

Injected power distribution characterized via Monte-Carlo simulations.

A kinetic theory approach to compute the power distribution.

Identification of a new quantity satisfying fluctuation relations.

Abstract

Our interest goes to the power injected in a heated granular gas and to the possibility to interpret it in terms of entropy flow. We numerically determine the distribution of the injected power by means of Monte-Carlo simulations. Then, we provide a kinetic theory approach to the computation of such a distribution function. Finally, after showing why the injected power does not satisfy a Fluctuation Relation a la Gallavotti-Cohen, we put forward a new quantity which does fulfill such a relation, and is not only applicable in a variety of frameworks outside the granular world, but also experimentally accessible.