Snooping in the sand

Because of the energy dissipation through friction and inelastic collisions between particles, agitated granular matter is generally speaking in a state far from thermal equilibrium. It can be considered as being a complex state of matter, which combines properties of the fluid and of the solid state. In order to provide data for modeling this peculiar state of matter, we investigate the dynamic behavior of granular matter under a two‐dimensional vibration in two different experimental setups. Because of the energy dissipation through friction and inelastic collisions between particles, agitated granular matter is generally speaking in a state far from thermal equilibrium. It can be considered as being a complex state of matter, which combines properties of the fluid and of the solid state. In order to provide data for modeling this peculiar state of matter, the authors investigate the dynamic behavior of granular matter under a two‐dimensional vibration in two different experimental setups.