1. Numerical test of the Edwards conjecture shows that all packings are equally probable at jamming
- Author
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Bulbul Chakraborty, K. Julian Schrenk, Daan Frenkel, Stefano Martiniani, Kabir Ramola, Martiniani, Stefano [0000-0003-2028-2175], Frenkel, Daan [0000-0002-6362-2021], and Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
- Subjects
Configuration entropy ,General Physics and Astronomy ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Granular media ,Jamming ,Condensed Matter - Soft Condensed Matter ,soft materials ,01 natural sciences ,010305 fluids & plasmas ,0103 physical sciences ,statistical physics, thermodynamics and nonlinear dynamics ,Numerical tests ,Statistical physics ,010306 general physics ,Condensed Matter - Statistical Mechanics ,Physics ,Condensed Matter - Materials Science ,Conjecture ,Computer simulation ,Statistical Mechanics (cond-mat.stat-mech) ,computational science ,Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) ,Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn) ,Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph) ,Condensed Matter - Disordered Systems and Neural Networks ,Soft materials ,Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) ,Physics - Computational Physics - Abstract
A decades-old proposal that all distinct packings are equally probable in granular media has gone unproven due to the sheer number of packings involved. Numerical simulation now demonstrates that it holds — precisely at the jamming threshold. In the late 1980s, Sam Edwards proposed a possible statistical-mechanical framework to describe the properties of disordered granular materials1. A key assumption underlying the theory was that all jammed packings are equally likely. In the intervening years it has never been possible to test this bold hypothesis directly. Here we present simulations that provide direct evidence that at the unjamming point, all packings of soft repulsive particles are equally likely, even though generically, jammed packings are not. Typically, jammed granular systems are observed precisely at the unjamming point since grains are not very compressible. Our results therefore support Edwards’ original conjecture. We also present evidence that at unjamming the configurational entropy of the system is maximal.
- Published
- 2017