Crystallization in a horizontally vibrated monolayer of spheres
The dynamics of a cluster consisting of a few thousand steel spheres on a horizontally vibrated plate is studied experimentally. A transition from randomly arranged and almost independently moving particles to a two-dimensional crystallike structure occurs when the filling fraction (the number of particles) is increased. This transition is quantitatively characterized by an order parameter obtained from the pair distribution function of the spheres.
Strassburger
G
Institut fur Experimentelle Physik, Otto-von-Guericke-Universitat Magdeburg, Postfach 4120, D-39016 Magdeburg, Germany.
Rehberg
I