title: Angularly anisotropic correlation in granular packings.
abstract: We present an x-ray microtomography study of the three-dimensional structural correlations in monodisperse granular packings. By measuring an orientation-dependent pair correlation function, we find that the local structure shows an angularly anisotropic orientation correlation. The correlation is strongest along the major axis of the local Minkowski tensor of the Voronoi cell. It turns out that this anisotropic correlation is consistent with the existence of some locally favored structures. The study suggests the importance of high-order structural correlations in random granular packings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong Chuan Road, Shanghai 200240, China.
authors.forename: Chengjie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong Chuan Road, Shanghai 200240, China.
authors.forename: Yixin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong Chuan Road, Shanghai 200240, China.
authors.forename: Binquan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kou
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong Chuan Road, Shanghai 200240, China.
authors.forename: Jindong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong Chuan Road, Shanghai 200240, China.
authors.forename: Yujie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: Xianghui
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA.
authors.forename: Kamel
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fezzaa