title: Clogging transition of many-particle systems flowing through bottlenecks.
abstract: When a large set of discrete bodies passes through a bottleneck, the flow may become intermittent due to the development of clogs that obstruct the constriction. Clogging is observed, for instance, in colloidal suspensions, granular materials and crowd swarming, where consequences may be dramatic. Despite its ubiquity, a general framework embracing research in such a wide variety of scenarios is still lacking. We show that in systems of very different nature and scale -including sheep herds, pedestrian crowds, assemblies of grains, and colloids- the probability distribution of time lapses between the passages of consecutive bodies exhibits a power-law tail with an exponent that depends on the system condition. Consequently, we identify the transition to clogging in terms of the divergence of the average time lapse. Such a unified description allows us to put forward a qualitative clogging state diagram whose most conspicuous feature is the presence of a length scale qualitatively related to the presence of a finite size orifice. This approach helps to understand paradoxical phenomena, such as the faster-is-slower effect predicted for pedestrians evacuating a room and might become a starting point for researchers working in a wide variety of situations where clogging represents a hindrance.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física y Matemática Aplicada, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Navarra, 31080 Pamplona, Spain.
authors.forename: Iker
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Zuriguel
authors.affiliation: 1] Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires, 25 de Mayo 444, (1002) C. A. de Buenos Aires, Argentina [2] Comisión Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina.
authors.forename: Daniel Ricardo
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Parisi
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física y Matemática Aplicada, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Navarra, 31080 Pamplona, Spain.
authors.forename: Raúl Cruz
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Hidalgo
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física y Matemática Aplicada, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Navarra, 31080 Pamplona, Spain.
authors.forename: Celia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lozano
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering, University of Edinburgh, King's Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3JL, UK.
authors.forename: Alvaro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Janda
authors.affiliation: 1] Comisión Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina [2] Dpto. de Ingeniería Mecánica, Facultad Regional La Plata, Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, Av. 60 Esq. 124, 1900 La Plata, Argentina.
authors.forename: Paula Alejandra
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Gago
authors.affiliation: Dpto. de Ingeniería Mecánica, Facultad Regional La Plata, Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, Av. 60 Esq. 124, 1900 La Plata, Argentina.
authors.forename: Juan Pablo
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Peralta
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Patología Animal, Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Zaragoza, Miguel Servet 177, 50013 Zaragoza, Spain.
authors.forename: Luis Miguel
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Ferrer
authors.affiliation: 1] Comisión Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina [2] Dpto. de Ingeniería Mecánica, Facultad Regional La Plata, Universidad Tecnológica Nacional, Av. 60 Esq. 124, 1900 La Plata, Argentina.
authors.forename: Luis Ariel
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Pugnaloni
authors.affiliation: PMMH-ESPCI, UMR7636-CNRS-Univ. P.&M. Curie and Paris-Diderot, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Clément
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física y Matemática Aplicada, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Navarra, 31080 Pamplona, Spain.
authors.forename: Diego
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Maza
authors.affiliation: Departament de Fisica Fonamental, Universitat de Barcelona, C. Marti i Franques 1, 08028 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Ignacio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Pagonabarraga
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física y Matemática Aplicada, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Navarra, 31080 Pamplona, Spain.
authors.forename: Angel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Garcimartín
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003441:Crowding; D006801:Humans; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D010316:Particle Size; D011336:Probability; D012756:Sheep
chemical_list: D003102:Colloids