Spatially heterogenous dynamics in dense, driven granular flows

TL;DR

This paper investigates dynamical heterogeneities in dense, driven granular flows, revealing large-scale correlated regions and spatially heterogeneous mobility, which are similar to behaviors in supercooled liquids and are crucial for understanding jamming transitions.

Contribution

It demonstrates the presence of large-scale dynamical heterogeneities in a driven granular system, linking these to jamming and non-equilibrium dynamics, providing new insights into the nature of dynamical arrest.

Findings

Existence of large-scale correlated dynamical regions.

Spatially heterogeneous mobility observed.

Dynamical heterogeneities similar to supercooled liquids.

Abstract

Interest in the dynamical arrest leading to a fluid --> solid transition in thermal and athermal systems has led to questions about the nature of these transitions. These jamming transitions may be dependent on the influence of extended structures on the dynamics of the system. Here we show results from a simple driven, dissipative, non-equilibrium system which exhibits dynamical heterogeneities similar to those observed in a supercooled liquid which is a system in thermal equilibrium. Observations of the time $\tau_R(r)$ required for a particular particle to move a distance $r$ reveal the existence of large-scale correlated dynamical regions with characteristic timescales chosen from a broad distribution. The mean squared displacement of ensembles of particles with varying characteristic $\tau_R(r)$ reveals an intriguing spatially heterogenous mobility. This suggests that a unified framework for jamming will have to be based on the connection between the nature of these heterogeneities and the effective dynamics.