Granular segregation as a critical phenomenon
Abstract
We present the results of an experimental study of patterned segregation in a horizontally shaken shallow layer of a binary mixture of dry particles. An order parameter for the segregated structures is defined and the effect of the variation of the combined filling fraction, C, of the mixture on the observed pattern formation is systematically studied. The surprising result is that there is a critical event associated with the onset of the pattern, at C=0.6470.049, which has the characteristics of a second order phase transition, including critical slowing down.
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