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Inherent structure landscape connection between liquids, granular materials, and the jamming phase diagram.
S S Ashwin1, Mahdi Zaeifi Yamchi2, Richard K Bowles2
1Department of Chemistry, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5C9, Canada and Department of Mechanical Engineering and Material Science and Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, USA.
Physical Review Letters
|August 29, 2014
Summary
This study reveals how jammed states and fluid states connect in hard disk systems. The jamming line divides accessible and inaccessible packings, with the jamming point marking this transition.
Area of Science:
- Statistical Mechanics
- Soft Matter Physics
- Granular Materials
Background:
- Understanding the jamming transition is crucial for explaining the behavior of granular materials and dense fluids.
- The inherent structure paradigm provides a framework to connect disordered solid (jammed) and fluid states.
- Hard disk systems offer a simplified model to investigate fundamental principles of jamming and phase transitions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To comprehensively map the jamming phase diagram for hard disks in a narrow channel.
- To elucidate the relationship between the equilibrium fluid and athermal granular ensembles via inherent structures.
- To identify the conditions defining the jamming line and jamming point within this system.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the inherent structure paradigm to analyze the jamming phase diagram.
- Investigated hard disk systems confined to a narrow channel.
- Employed the Edwards ensemble to model the granular system and compared it with the equilibrium fluid.
Main Results:
- The jamming line is characterized by packings accessible or inaccessible from the equilibrium fluid.
- The jamming point signifies the transition between these packing types and coincides with the maximum of the inherent structure distribution.
- A thermodynamic argument suggests the density of states at maximum configurational entropy provides a lower bound for the jamming point density in hard sphere systems.
Conclusions:
- Granular and fluid systems sample the same thermodynamically accessible states across all conditions.
- Identical inherent structures are sampled only at zero and infinite pressures, corresponding to jamming point and maximum density states, respectively.
- The inherent structure paradigm successfully bridges the gap between granular jamming and equilibrium fluid behavior in confined hard disk systems.
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