Randomly Driven Granular Fluids: large scale structure

TL;DR

This paper investigates the large-scale structure of a nonequilibrium granular fluid driven by random forces, revealing long-range correlations and validating theoretical predictions with simulations.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence of long-range correlations in driven granular fluids and provides a comprehensive calculation of structure factors across all wave numbers.

Findings

Long-range correlations behave as 1/r in 3D and ln(L/r) in 2D.

Structure factors agree with molecular dynamics simulations.

Hydrodynamic fluctuations renormalize steady state parameters.

Abstract

The nonequilibrium steady state of a granular fluid, driven by a random external force, is demonstrated to exhibit long range correlations, which behave as $\sim 1/r$ in three and $\sim \ln(L/r)$ in two dimensions. We calculate the corresponding structure factors over the whole range of wave numbers, and find good agreement with two-dimensional molecular dynamics simulations. It is also shown by means of a mode coupling calculation, how the mean field values for the steady state temperature and collision frequency, as obtained from the Enskog-Boltzmann equation, are renormalized by long wavelength hydrodynamic fluctuations.