Single-particle dynamics in dense granular fluids under driving

Matthias Sperl^1a, W. Till Kranz^2,3 and Annette Zippelius^2,3

¹ Institut für Materialphysik im Weltraum, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) 51170 Köln, Germany, EU
² Max-Planck-Institut für Dynamik und Selbstorganisation - Am Fassberg 17, 37077 Göttingen, Germany, EU
³ Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Institut für Theoretische Physik - Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany, EU

^a matthias.sperl@dlr.de

Received: 24 January 2012
Accepted: 19 March 2012

Abstract

We present a mode-coupling theory for the dynamics of a tagged particle in a driven granular fluid close to the glass transition. The mean-squared displacement is shown to exhibit a plateau indicating structural arrest. In contrast to elastic hard-sphere fluids, which are solely controlled by volume fraction, the localisation length as well as the critical dynamics depend on the degree of dissipation, parametrized by the coefficient of normal restitution ε. Hence the resulting glassy structure as well as the critical dynamics are nonuniversal with respect to ε.