Internal avalanches in models of granular media

TL;DR

This paper investigates internal avalanches in lattice models of granular media, revealing long-range power-law behavior and demonstrating that avalanche distributions serve as sensitive indicators of the system's structural state.

Contribution

It introduces a study of internal avalanching in granular models, highlighting the power-law decay and the use of avalanche distributions as structural probes.

Findings

Avalanches are long-ranged and decay as a power-law.

Avalanche distribution varies with packing density.

Avalanche distribution is a sensitive structural indicator.

Abstract

We study the phenomenon of internal avalanching within the context of recently introduced lattice models of granular media. The avalanche is produced by pulling out a grain at the base of the packing and studying how many grains have to rearrange before the packing is once more stable. We find that the avalanches are long-ranged, decaying as a power-law. We study the distriution of avalanches as a function of the density of the packing and find that the avalanche distribution is a very sensitive structural probe of the system.