Characterization of a Freezing/Melting Transition in a Vibrated and Sheared Granular Medium

TL;DR

This study investigates a granular system that exhibits a reversible freezing and melting transition under vibration and shear, revealing hysteresis and features akin to jamming and critical phenomena.

Contribution

It provides experimental characterization of a reversible freezing/melting transition in vibrated and sheared granular media, highlighting hysteresis and critical-like behavior.

Findings

Crystallized state forms under sufficient vibration.

Shear can melt the crystallized state.

Hysteresis observed in transition between states.

Abstract

We describe experiments on monodisperse spherical particles in an annular cell geometry, vibrated from below and sheared from above. This system shows a freezing/melting transition such that under sufficient vibration a crystallized state is observed, which can be melted by sufficient shear. We characterize the hysteretic transition between these two states, and observe features reminiscent of both a jamming transition and critical phenomena.