Spiral modes in the diffusion of a granular particle on a vibrating surface

Abstract

We consider a particle that is subject to a constant force and scatters inelastically on a vibrating periodically corrugated floor. At small friction and small radius of the circular scatterers the dynamics is dominated by resonances forming spiral structures in phase space. These spiral modes lead to pronounced maxima and minima in the diffusion coefficient as a function of the vibration frequency, as is shown in computer simulations. Our theoretical predictions may be verified experimentally by studying transport of granular matter on vibratory conveyors.