Energy fluctuations in vibrated and driven granular gases

Using two-dimensional numerical simulations of a granular gas excited by vibrating one of the container boundaries, we study the fluctuations of its total kinetic energy, of the power injected into the gas by the moving boundary and of the power dissipated by inelastic collisions. We show that an effective number N f of degrees of freedom that depends on the inelasticity of collisions can be extracted from the probability density function (PDF) of the fluctuations of the total kinetic energy E. $\langle E \rangle /N_f$ is then an intensive variable contrary to the usually defined granular temperature $T_{gr} = \langle E \rangle / N$ . We then show that an intensive temperature can also be calculated from the probability of certain large deviations of the injected power. Finally, we show that the fluctuations of injected and dissipated power are related such that their ratio is inversely proportional to the square-root of the ratio of their correlation times. This allows to define a quantity homogenous to a temperature that is intensive and conserved in the process of energy dynamics from its injection by the driving piston to its dissipation by inelastic collisions.

Through an exact analysis, we show the existence of Mpemba effect in an anisotropically driven inelastic Maxwell gas, a simplified model for granular gases, in two dimensions. Mpemba effect refers to the couterintuitive phenomenon of a hotter system relaxing to the steady state faster than a cooler system, when both are quenched to the same lower temperature. The Mpemba effect has been illustrated in earlier studies on isotropically driven granular gases, but its existence requires non-stationary initial states, limiting experimental realisation. In this paper, we demonstrate the existence of the Mpemba effect in anisotropically driven Maxwell gases even when the initial states are non-equilibrium steady states. The precise conditions for the Mpemba effect, its inverse, and the stronger version, where the hotter system cools exponentially faster are derived.

We study the nonlinear dispersive characteristics in β-Fermi-Pasta-Ulam (FPU) chains in both thermal equilibrium and nonequilibrium steady state. By applying a multiple scale analysis to the FPU chain, we analyze the contribution of the trivial and nontrivial resonance to the renormalization of the dispersion relation. Our results show that the contribution of the nontrivial resonance remains significant to the renormalization, in particular, in strongly nonlinear regimes. We contrast our results with the dispersion relations obtained from the Zwanzig-Mori formalism and random phase approximation to further illustrate the role of resonances. Surprisingly, these theoretical dispersion relations can be generalized to describe dispersive characteristics well at the nonequilibrium steady state of the FPU chain with driving-damping in real space. Through numerical simulation, we confirm that the theoretical renormalized dispersion relations are valid for a wide range of nonlinearities in thermal equilibrium as well as in nonequilibrium steady state. We further show that the dispersive characteristics persist in nonequilibrium steady state driven-damped in Fourier space.

We present an experimental investigation of the statistical properties of the position fluctuations of low-loss oscillators in nonequilibrium steady states. The oscillators are coupled to a heat bath, and a nonequilibrium steady state is produced by flowing a constant heat flux, setting a temperature difference across the oscillators. We investigated the distribution of the measurements of the square of the oscillator position and searched for signs of changes with respect to the equilibrium case. We found that, after normalization by the mean value, the second, third, and fourth standardized statistical moments are not modified by the underlying thermodynamic state. This differs from the behavior of the absolute, i.e., not normalized, second moment, which is strongly affected by temperature gradients and heat fluxes. We illustrate this with a numerical experiment in which we study via molecular dynamics the fluctuations of the length of a one-dimensional chain of identical particles interacting via anharmonic interparticle potentials, with the extremes thermostated at different temperatures: we use the variance of the length in correspondence to its first elastic mode of resonance to define an effective temperature which we observe to depart from the thermodynamic one in the nonequilibrium states. We investigate the effect of changing the interparticle potential and show that the qualitative behavior of the nonequilibrium excess is unchanged. Our numerical results are consistent with the chain length being Gaussian distributed in the nonequilibrium states. Our experimental investigation reveals that the position variance is the only, and crucially easily accessible, observable for distinguishing equilibrium from nonequilibrium steady states. The consequences of this fact for the design of interferometric gravitational wave detectors are discussed.

We report on the energy transport between two coupled probes in contact with granular thermostats at different temperatures. In our experiment, two identical blades, which are electromechanically coupled, are immersed in two granular gases maintained in different non-equilibrium stationary states, characterized by different temperatures. First, we show that the energy flux from one probe to another is, in temporal average, proportional to the temperature difference, as in the case of equilibrium thermostats. Secondly, we observe that the instantaneous flux is highly intermittent and that fluctuations exhibit an asymmetry which increases with the temperature difference. Interestingly, this asymmetry, related to irreversibility, is correctly accounted for by a relation strongly evoking the Fluctuation Theorem. Our experiment is a simple macroscopic realisation, suitable for the study of energy exchanges between systems in non-equilibrium steady states.

Non-equilibrium vibrational steady state in chemisorption and catalysis

In this paper, I summarize and comment on joint work with C Bernardin, V Kannan and J L Lebowitz concerning two harmonic systems with bulk noises whose nonequilibrium steady states (NESS) are nearly identical (they share the same thermal conductivity and two-point function), but whose hydrodynamic properties (convergence towards the NESS) are very different. The goal is to discuss the results in the general context of nonequilibrium properties of dynamical systems, in particular, what they tell us about possible effective models, or predictive approximations, for such systems.

Fluctuation theorems are a generalization of thermodynamics on small scales and provide the tools to characterize the fluctuations of thermodynamic quantities in non-equilibrium nanoscale systems. They are particularly important for understanding irreversibility and the second law in fundamental chemical and biological processes that are actively driven, thus operating far from thermal equilibrium. Here, we apply the framework of fluctuation theorems to investigate the important case of a system relaxing from a non-equilibrium state towards equilibrium. Using a vacuum-trapped nanoparticle, we demonstrate experimentally the validity of a fluctuation theorem for the relative entropy change occurring during relaxation from a non-equilibrium steady state. The platform established here allows non-equilibrium fluctuation theorems to be studied experimentally for arbitrary steady states and can be extended to investigate quantum fluctuation theorems as well as systems that do not obey detailed balance.

We look into the minimisation of the connection time between non-equilibrium steady states. As a prototypical example of an intrinsically non-equilibrium system, a driven granular gas is considered. For time-independent driving, its natural time scale for relaxation is characterised from an empirical -- the relaxation function -- and a theoretical -- the recently derived classical speed limits -- point of view. Using control theory, we find that bang-bang protocols -- comprising two steps, heating with the largest possible value of the driving and cooling with zero driving -- minimise the connecting time. The bang-bang time is shorter than both the empirical relaxation time and the classical speed limit: in this sense, the natural time scale for relaxation is beaten. Information theory quantities stemming from the Fisher information are also analysed over these optimal protocols. The implementation of the bang-bang processes in numerical simulations of the dynamics of the granular gas show an excellent agreement with the theoretical predictions. Moreover, general implications of our results are discussed for a wide class of driven non-equilibrium systems. Specifically, we show that analogous bang-bang protocols, with a number of bangs equal to the number of relevant physical variables, give the minimum connecting time under quite general conditions.

A driven granular material, e.g. a vibrated box full of sand, is a stationary system which may be very far from equilibrium. The standard equilibrium statistical mechanics is therefore inadequate to describe fluctuations in such a system. Here we present numerical and analytical results concerning energy and injected power fluctuations. In the first part we explain how the study of the probability density function (pdf) of the fluctuations of total energy is related to the characterization of velocity correlations. Two different regimes are addressed: the gas driven at the boundaries and the homogeneously driven gas. In a granular gas, due to non-Gaussianity of the velocity pdf or lack of homogeneity in hydrodynamics profiles, even in the absence of velocity correlations, the fluctuations of total energy are non-trivial and may lead to erroneous conclusions about the role of correlations. In the second part of the chapter we take into consideration the fluctuations of injected power in driven granular gas models. Recently, real and numerical experiments have been interpreted as evidence that the fluctuations of power injection seem to satisfy the Gallavotti-Cohen Fluctuation Relation. We will discuss an alternative interpretation of such results which invalidates the Gallavotti-Cohen symmetry. Moreover, starting from the Liouville equation and using techniques from large deviation theory, the general validity of a Fluctuation Relation for power injection in driven granular gases is questioned. Finally a functional is defined using the Lebowitz-Spohn approach for Markov processes applied to the linear inelastic Boltzmann equation relevant to describe the motion of a tracer particle. Such a functional results to be different from injected power and to satisfy a Fluctuation Relation.

The Green-Kubo relation for two models of granular gases is discussed. In the Maxwell model in any dimension, the effective temperature obtained from the Green-Kubo relation is shown to be frequency independent and equal to the average kinetic energy, known as the granular temperature. In the second model analyzed, a mean-field granular gas, the collision rate of a particle is taken to be proportional to its velocity. The Green-Kubo relation in the high-frequency limit is calculated for this model, and the effective temperature in this limit is shown to be equal to the granular temperature. This result, taken together with previous results showing a difference between the effective temperature at zero frequency (the Einstein relation) and the granular temperature, shows that the Green-Kubo relation for granular gases is violated.

Dynamic acousto-elastic testing, a pump-probe scheme, is employed to investigate the recovery of consolidated granular media systems from the non-equilibrium steady state established by a pump strain field. This measurement scheme makes it possible to follow the recovery from the non-equilibrium steady state over many orders of magnitude in time. The recovery is described with a relaxation time spectrum that is found to be independent of the amplitude of the non-equilibrium steady state (pump amplitude) and of the environment in which samples reside. The non-equilibrium steady state and its slow recovery are the laboratory realization of phenomena that are found in many physical systems of practical importance.

An experimental study is presented, about transitions between Non-Equilibrium Steady States (NESS) in a dissipative medium. The core device is a small rotating blade that imposes cycles of increasing and decreasing forcings to a granular gas, shaken independently. The velocity of this blade is measured, subject to the transitions imposed by the periodic torque variation. The Hatano-Sasa (HS) equality, that generalises the second principle of thermodynamics to NESS, is verified with a high accuracy (a few 10−3), at different variation rates. Besides, it is observed that the fluctuating velocity at fixed forcing follows a generalised Gumbel distribution. A rough evaluation of the mean free path in the granular gas suggests that it might be a correlated system, at least partially.

Mass conserved elementary kinetics is sufficient for the existence of a non-equilibrium steady state concentration

The magnon excitation by ultrasound injection in Y3Fe5O12 is studied by inelastic neutron scattering. Both longitudinal and transverse ultrasound injections enhanced the inelastic neutron scattering intensity. We analyzed the nonequilibrium magnon steady state using the effective magnon temperature model. The large deviation of the effective magnon temperature from the sample temperature is observed at the ultrasound longitudinal mode along [0, 0, 1] at ∼10 K and [1, 1, 1] at ∼140 K. This dependence suggests that the nonequilibrium steady state can be achieved only by strong spin–lattice coupling in Y3Fe5O12. The spin–lattice coupling exhibits a decrease largely above 100 K, indicating that it could be the main origin of the degradation of longitudinal spin Seebeck effect at the temperature range.