2014/07/27 by Yimin Jiang, Jiang, Yimin, Mario Liu +1
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1407.7224
arxiv created 2014/07/27 · arxiv updated 2014/07/29
Granular media are considered "athermal", because the grains are too large to display Brownian type thermal fluctuations. Yet being macroscopic, every grain undergoes thermal expansion, possesses a temperature that may be measured with a thermometer, and consists of many, many internal degrees of freedom that in their sum do affect granular dynamics. Therefore, including them in a comprehensive approach to account for granular behavior entails crucial advantages. The pros and cons of thermal versus athermal descriptions are considered.