Granular collapse as a percolation transition.
Inelastic collapse is found in a two-dimensional system of inelastic hard disks confined between two walls which act as an energy source. As the coefficient of restitution is lowered, there is a transition between a state containing small collapsed clusters and a state dominated by a large collapsed cluster. The transition is analogous to that of a percolation transition. At the transition the number of clusters n(s) of size s scales as n(s) approximately s(-tau) with tau approximately equal to 2.7.
Tobochnik
J
J
Department of Physics, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49006, USA jant@kzoo.edu.