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Unifying Concepts in Granular Media and Glasses, p. 47-61

DOI: 10.1016/b978-044451607-7/50005-4

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Statistical Mechanics of jamming and segregation in granular media

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Abstract

In the framework of schematic hard spheres lattice models we discuss Edwards' Statistical Mechanics approach to granular media. As this approach appears to hold here to a very good approximation, by analytical calculations of Edwards' partition function at a mean field level we derive the system phase diagram and show that ``jamming'' corresponds to a phase transition from a ``fluid'' to a ``glassy'' phase, observed when crystallization is avoided. The nature of such a ``glassy'' phase turns out to be the same found in mean field models for glass formers. In the same context, we also briefly discuss mixing/segregation phenomena of binary mixtures: the presence of fluid-crystal phase transitions drives segregation as a form of phase separation and, within a given phase, gravity can also induce a kind of ``vertical'' segregation, usually not associated to phase transitions. ; Comment: Contribution to the volume "Unifying Concepts in Granular Media and Glasses", edt.s A. Coniglio, A. Fierro, H. J. Herrmann and M. Nicodemi