Abstract
We investigate the properties of a model of granular matter consisting of Brownian particles on a line, subject to inelastic mutual collisions. This model displays a genuine thermodynamic limit for the mean values of the energy, and the energy dissipation. When the typical relaxation time associated with the Brownian process is small compared with the mean collision time the spatial density is nearly homogeneous and the velocity probability distribution is Gaussian. In the opposite limit one has strong spatial clustering, with a fractal distribution of particles, and the velocity probability distribution strongly deviates from the Gaussian one.
- Received 11 December 1997
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.3848
©1998 American Physical Society