Phase diagram of vertically shaken granular matter

A shallow, vertically shaken granular bed in a quasi-two-dimensional container is explored experimentally yielding a wider variety of phenomena than in any previous study: (1) bouncing bed, (2) undulations, (3) granular Leidenfrost effect, (4) convection rolls, and (5) granular gas. These phenomena and the transitions among them are characterized by dimensionless control parameters and combined in a full experimental phase diagram. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.