Randomly driven granular fluids: collisional statistics and short scale structure

Abstract

We present a molecular dynamics and kinetic theory study of granular material, modeled by inelastic hard disks, fluidized by a random driving force. The focus is on collisional averages and short distance correlations in the non-equilibrium steady state, in order to analyze in a quantitative manner the breakdown of molecular chaos, i.e. factorization of the two-particle distribution function, $f^{(2)}(x_1,x_2) \simeq \chi f^(1)(x_1) f^{(1)}(x_2)$ in a product of single particle ones, where $x_i = \{{\bf r}_i, {\bf v}_i \}$ with $i=1,2$ and $\chi$ represents the position correlation. We have found that molecular chaos is only violated in a small region of the two-particle phase space $\{x_1,x_2\}$, where there is a predominance of grazing collisions. The size of this singular region grows with increasing inelasticity. The existence of particle- and noise-induced recollisions magnifies the departure from mean field behavior. The implications of this breakdown in several physical quantities are explored.