title: Reexamination of the Branly effect.
abstract: The electrical resistance of a metallic granular packing has been recorded at room temperature. A nearby burster between which sparks are produced, induces a decrease in the resistance of the granular packing as described in the works of Branly. Our measurements emphasize that the decrease is continuous and the resistance variations behave like a stretched exponential law due to the creation of new electrical paths as in nucleation-growth soldering processes. This behavior has been identified to be a diffusionlike process.
authors.affiliation: GRASP, Institut de Physique B5, Université de Liège, Belgium.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dorbolo
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ausloos
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vandewalle