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Updated: May 1, 2026

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids
Published on: December 4, 2017
Slow relaxation and aging phenomena at the nanoscale in granular materials
V Y Zaitsev1, V E Gusev2, V Tournat2
1Institute of Applied Physics, RAS, Uljanova St. 46, 603950 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia and LUNAM Université, Université du Maine, CNRS, LAUM UMR 6613, avenue O. Messiaen, 72085 Le Mans, France and Nizhny Novgorod State University, avenue Gagarina 23, 603950 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.
Abstract:
Granular matter exhibits a rich variety of dynamic behaviors, for which the role of thermal fluctuations is usually ignored. Here we show that thermal fluctuations can pronouncedly affect contacting nanoscale asperities at grain interfaces and brightly manifest themselves through the influence on nonlinear-acoustic effects. The proposed mechanism based on intrinsic bistability of nanoscale contacts comprises a wealth of slow-dynamics regimes including slow relaxations and aging as universal properties of a wide class of systems with metastable states.
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