title: Depletion force in a bidisperse granular layer.
abstract: We demonstrate the effect of the depletion force in experiments and simulations of vertically vibrated mixtures of large and small steel spheres. The system exhibits size segregation and a large increase in the pair correlation function of the large spheres for short distances that can be accurately described using a combination of the depletion potential derived for equilibrium colloidal systems and a Boltzmann factor. The Boltzmann factor defines an effective temperature for the system, which we compare to other measures of temperature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Georgetown University, 37th & O Streets, Washington, DC 20057, USA.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Melby
authors.forename: Alexis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Prevost
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Egolf
authors.forename: Jeffrey S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Urbach