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Updated: Aug 16, 2026

Cooling Rate Dependent Ellipsometry Measurements to Determine the Dynamics of Thin Glassy Films
Published on: January 26, 2016
Analogies between granular jamming and the liquid-glass transition
Leonardo E Silbert1, Deniz Ertaş, Gary S Grest
1Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185, USA.
Abstract:
Based on large-scale, three-dimensional chute flow simulations of granular systems, we uncover strong analogies between the jamming of the grains and the liquid-glass transition. The angle of inclination theta in the former transition appears as an analog of temperature T in the latter. The transition is manifested in the development of a plateau in the contact normal force distribution P(f) at small forces, the splitting of the second peak in the pair-correlation function g(r), and increased fluctuations of the system energy. The static state also exhibits history dependence, akin to the quench-rate dependence of structural properties of glasses, due to the hyperstaticity of the contact network.
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