Dynamics and avalanches in a system exhibiting granular collapse

The dynamics of an experimental driven quasi-2D system of polydisperse particles in a cluster formed by granular collapse is characterized via the self-intermediate scattering function and the mean-squared displacement and is compared with monodisperse experimental and computational systems. The dynamics, despite the difference in dimensionality, is shown to resemble that of de-vitrification in certain simulations of 3D colloidal monodisperse hard sphere glasses in that avalanches are a key feature. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.