Shaken, not stirred: why gravel packs better than bricks

dc.creatorMehta, Anita
dc.creatorLuck, J. M.
dc.date2003-11-21
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T02:54:53Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T02:54:53Z
dc.descriptionWe explore the effect of shape -- jagged vs. regular -- in the jamming limit of very gently shaken packings. Our measure of shape $\eps$ is the void space occupied by a disordered grain; we show that depending on its number-theoretic nature, two generic behaviours are obtained. Thus, regularly shaped grains (rational $\eps$) have ground states of perfect packing, which are irretrievably lost under zero-temperature shaking; the reverse is the case for jagged grains (irrational $\eps$), where the ground state is only optimally packed, but entirely retrievable. At low temperatures, we find intermittency at the surface, which has recently been seen experimentally.
dc.description10 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Proceedings of 'Unifying Concepts in granular media and glasses', held at Villa Orlandi, Anacapri (2003)
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0311500
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0311500
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/22741
dc.subjectSoft Condensed Matter
dc.subjectStatistical Mechanics
dc.titleShaken, not stirred: why gravel packs better than bricks
dc.typetext

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