Hysteresis and competition between disorder and crystallization in sheared and vibrated granular flow

Abstract

Experiments on spherical particles in a 3D Couette cell vibrated from below and sheared from above show a hysteretic freezing/melting transition. Under sufficient vibration a crystallized state is observed, which can be melted by sufficient shear. The critical line for this transition coincides with equal kinetic energies for vibration and shear. The force distribution is double-peaked in the crystalline state and single-peaked with an approximately exponential tail in the disordered state. A linear relation between pressure and volume ($dP/dV > 0$) exists for a continuum of partially and/or intermittently melted states over a range of parameters.