Power-law velocity distributions in granular gases

Ben-Naim, E.; Machta, B.; Machta, J.

Power-law velocity distributions in granular gases

Authors

Ben-Naim, E.

Machta, B.

Machta, J.

Description

We report a general class of steady and transient states of granular gases. We find that the kinetic theory of inelastic gases admits stationary solutions with a power-law velocity distribution, f(v) ~ v^(-sigma). The exponent sigma is found analytically and depends on the spatial dimension, the degree of inelasticity, and the homogeneity degree of the collision rate. Driven steady-states, with the same power-law tail and a cut-off can be maintained by injecting energy at a large velocity scale, which then cascades to smaller velocities where it is dissipated. Associated with these steady-states are freely cooling time-dependent states for which the cut-off decreases and the velocity distribution is self-similar.
11 pages, 9 figures