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Numerical calculation of granular entropy.


Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Asenjo, Daniel 
Paillusson, Fabien 

Abstract

We present numerical simulations that allow us to compute the number of ways in which N particles can pack into a given volume V. Our technique modifies the method of Xu, Frenkel, and Liu [Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 245502 (2011)] and outperforms existing direct enumeration methods by more than 200 orders of magnitude. We use our approach to study the system size dependence of the number of distinct packings of a system of up to 128 polydisperse soft disks. We show that, even though granular particles are distinguishable, we have to include a factor 1=N! to ensure that the entropy does not change when exchanging particles between systems in the same macroscopic state. Our simulations provide strong evidence that the packing entropy, when properly defined, is extensive. As different packings are created with unequal probabilities, it is natural to express the packing entropy as S = − Σ(i)p(i) ln pi − lnN!, where pi denotes the probability to generate the ith packing. We can compute this quantity reliably and it is also extensive. The granular entropy thus (re)defined, while distinct from the one proposed by Edwards [J. Phys. Condens. Matter 2, SA63 (1990)], does have all the properties Edwards assumed.

Description

Keywords

0914 Resources Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy

Journal Title

Phys Rev Lett

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0031-9007
1079-7114

Volume Title

112

Publisher

American Physical Society (APS)
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/I001352/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/I000844/1)
The Royal Society (wm072834)
European Research Council (227758)
This work has been supported by the EPSRC grant N EP/I000844/1. D.F. acknowledges support from ERC Advanced Grant 227758, Wolfson Merit Award 2007/R3 of the Royal Society of London. D.A. acknowledges support from Becas Chile CONICYT.