Phase Transition and Critical Phenomenon Occurring in Granular Matter

We investigate the granular flow states in a channel with bottleneck by molecular dynamics simulations. Our study is restricted only on a selected key area rather than on the whole system to focus on the flow properties of a single granular state. A random force field is introduced to control the granular temperature. It is also pointed out that the flow rate in the granular flow can be correlated with the pressure, which leads us to carry out a comprehensive study similar to the classical study for general liquid-gas phase transition. Our results show that the dilute flow state and the dense flow state of the granules are similar to the gas state and the liquid state of general substances, respectively, and the properties of phase transition and critical phenomenon are also similar to those occurring in general substances.