Numerical test of the Edwards conjecture shows that all packings are equally probable at jamming
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Journal Title
Nature Physics
ISSN
1745-2473
Publisher
Springer Nature
Volume
13
Pages
848-851
Language
English
Type
Article
This Version
AM
Metadata
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Martiniani, S., Schrenk, K., Ramola, K., Chakraborty, B., & Frenkel, D. (2017). Numerical test of the Edwards conjecture shows that all packings are equally probable at jamming. Nature Physics, 13 848-851. https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys4168
Abstract
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.
Keywords
computational science, soft materials, statistical physics, thermodynamics and nonlinear dynamics
Sponsorship
S.M. acknowledges financial support by the Gates Cambridge Scholarship. K.J.S. acknowledges support by the Swiss National Science Foundation under Grant No. P2EZP2-152188 and No. P300P2-161078. D.F. acknowledges support by EPSRC Programme Grant EP/I001352/1 and EPSRC grant EP/I000844/1. K.R. and B.C. acknowledge the support of NSF-DMR 1409093 and the W. M. Keck Foundation.
Funder references
EPSRC (EP/I001352/1)
EPSRC (EP/I000844/1)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys4168
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/266045
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