p1=['Equilibrium statistical mechanics is generally not applicable to systems with energy input and dissipation present, and identifying relevant tools for understanding these far-from-equilibrium systems poses a serious challenge.  Excited granular materials or granular fluids have become a canonical system to explore such ideas since they are inherently dissipative due to inter-particle frictional contacts and inelastic collisions.  Granular materials also have far reaching practical importance in a number of industries, but accumulated ad-hoc knowledge is often the only design tool.  An important feature of granular fluids is that the driving and dissipation mechanisms can be made to balance such that a Non-Equilibrium Steady-State (NESS) is achieved.  We present strong experimental evidence for a NESS first-order phase transition in a vibrated two-dimensional granular fluid.  The phase transition between a gas and a crystal is characterized by a discontinuous change in both density and temperature and exhibits rate dependent hysteresis.  We compare and contrast this type of transition with an equilibrium first-order phase transition and a hysteretic backward bifurcation in a nonlinear pattern forming system.'];

p2=['We experimentally investigate the non-equilibrium steady-state (NESS) structure of a uniformly heated quasi-2D granular fluid as a function of the filling fraction. For the first time we experimentally show that the structure (as measured by radial distribution function, bond order parameter, and shape factor) of a NESS behaves identically to that of its equilibrium counterpart. In our driven dissipative system there is a constant energy flow through the system making it far from equilibrium, yet it behaves as though it were in equilibrium with a maximization principle like entropy. It appears that homogeneity and stationarity are more important than energy conservation for producing a thermodynamic state. The existence of a thermodynamics for NESS has profound consequences for granular systems and more broadly for any systems, which are out of equilibrium due to energy flux, and may lead to a fundamental justification for a theory of gradients in a near-NESS analogous to Navier-Stokes equations for near-equilibrium systems. '];

p3=['We report on the experimental velocity statistics in 2D granular fluids for three different geometries: horizontal uniformly heated, vertical heated from below, and rotated. Each of these flows are steady-states, but progressively further out of equilibrium.  However we find a universal velocity distribution which describes each case.  In particular it captures the highest probability deviations from a Maxwell-Boltzmann.  We use stainless steel spheres (diameter D), confined by two glass plates. In the uniformly heated case, the plates are horizontal and separated by 1.6 D with a rough bottom plate which effectively transfers momentum from the vertical shaking into the horizontal plane. This allows us to study a large range of filling fractions. In the vertically heated case, the plates are vertical and separated by 1.05 D with a weight on top and a vertically vibrating bottom.  In the rotating case, the wall are vertical with a separation of 1.6D and rotated about the horizontal.  We compare and contrast the single particle velocity distributions in the various geometries and with standard kinetic theory assumptions.'];

p4=['Under a wide variety of conditions granular materials behave as Newtonian fluids.  The apparent difference between granular fluids and more familiar molecular fluids is that granular fluids are commonly found in extreme conditions, such as super- and hypersonic flow and flow induced phase transitions.  These situations are due to energy loss during granular collisions resulting in low granular temperatures.  In previous experiments, we have experimentally shown that hypersonic flow in dilute granular materials is well characterized by Newtonian fluid equations.  In the present experiment we test the extent to which these results are applicable to dense granular flows in a rotating layer of spheres trapped between two glass plates.  In this system we have found a universal near Maxwell-Boltzmann velocity distribution throughout the flowing regions.  However, mixed in the slowest flowing regions the system undergoes a phase transition in which small micro-crystals are formed and then are melted due to shear forces and collisions with other micro-crystals.  We introduce an order parameter to characterize the degree of crystallization and to extract the statistics of the crystals and the fluid separately.  ']

p4=[p4 'We study a vibrated two-dimensional granular fluid under constant pressure using high-speed video imaging.  We measure the particle trajectories of all of the stainless steel particles in the cell.  A freely floating weight confines the particle to a fluctuating volume but under constant pressure.  By varying the weight, the number of particles, the vibration frequency, and amplitude we can measure the volume fraction as a function of temperature and pressure under an isobaric constraint.  We measure the ensemble averaged velocity distribution function and the radial distribution function throughout the cell and compare these measurements to the standard equation of state for and inelastic dense gas.  We explore corrections due to the varying density and temperature in the direction of gravity and at the boundaries, as well as, the anisotropy of the temperature.  At low granular temperatures we investigate a first order phase transition to a crystalline state, which strongly depends on the number particles.  Fluctuations from crystalline to disordered fluid are seen due to finite size effects.']

p4=[p4 'We present experimental results on the velocity statistics of a uniformly heated granular fluid, in a quasi-2D configuration. We find the base state, as measured by the single particle velocity distribution $f(c)$, to be universal over a wide range of filling fractions and only weakly dependent on all other system parameters. There is a consistent overpopulation in the distributions  tails, which scale as  $ f\propto\exp(\mathrm{const.}\times c^{-3/2})$. More importantly, the high probability central  region of $f(c)$, at low velocities, deviates from a Maxwell-Boltzmann by a second order Sonine polynomial with a single adjustable parameter, in agreement with recent theoretical analysis of inelastic hard spheres driven by a stochastic thermostat. To our knowledge, this is the first time that Sonine deviations have been measured in an experimental system.']

p5=['We report an experimental investigation of the caging motion in a uniformly heated granular fluid, for a wide range of filling fractions, $\phi$. At low $\phi$ the classic diffusive behavior of a fluid is observed. However, as $\phi$ is increased, temporary cages develop and particles become increasingly trapped by their neighbors. We statistically analyze particle trajectories and observe a number of robust features typically associated with dense molecular liquids and colloids. Even though our monodisperse and quasi-2D system is known to not exhibit a glass transition, we still observe many of the precursors usually associated with glassy dynamics. We speculate that this is due to a process of structural arrest provided, in our case, by the presence of crystallization.']

p5=[p5 'We experimentally investigate the crystallization of a uniformly heated quasi-2D granular fluid as a function of the filling fraction. Our experimental results for the Lindemann melting criterion, the radial distribution function, the bond order parameter, and the statistics of topological changes at the particle level are the same as those found in simulations of equilibrium hard disks. This direct mapping suggests that the study of equilibrium systems can be effectively applied to study nonequilibrium steady states such as those found in our driven and dissipative granular system. ']

p6=['Under many conditions, macroscopic grains flow like a fluid; kinetic theory predicts continuum equations of motion for this granular fluid. In order to test the theory, we perform event-driven molecular simulations of a two-dimensional gas of inelastic hard disks, driven by contact with a heat bath. Even for strong dissipation, high densities, and small numbers of particles, we find that continuum theory describes the system well. With a bath that heats the gas homogeneously, strong velocity correlations produce a slightly smaller energy loss due to inelastic collisions than that predicted by kinetic theory. With an inhomogeneous heat bath, thermal or velocity gradients are induced. Determination of the resulting fluxes allows calculation of the thermal conductivity and shear viscosity, which are compared to the predictions of granular kinetic theory, and which can be used in continuum modeling of granular flows. The shear viscosity is close to the prediction of kinetic theory, while the thermal conductivity can be overestimated by a factor of 2; in each case, transport is lowered with increasing inelasticity.']


p1p=char((p1+char(fix(rand(1,length(p1))*5))));
p1p(p1<65)=p1(p1<65);
p1p((p1p>=65+26+32))=p1((p1p>=65+26+32));
p1p((p1p>=65+26) & (p1p<65+32))=p1((p1p>=65+26) & (p1p<65+32));

p2p=char((p2+char(fix(rand(1,length(p2))*5))));
p2p(p2<65)=p2(p2<65);
p2p((p2p>=65+26+32))=p2((p2p>=65+26+32));
p2p((p2p>=65+26) & (p2p<65+32))=p2((p2p>=65+26) & (p2p<65+32));

p3p=char((p3+char(fix(rand(1,length(p3))*5))));
p3p(p3<65)=p3(p3<65);
p3p((p3p>=65+26+32))=p3((p3p>=65+26+32));
p3p((p3p>=65+26) & (p3p<65+32))=p3((p3p>=65+26) & (p3p<65+32));

p4p=char((p4+char(fix(rand(1,length(p4))*5))));
p4p(p4<65)=p4(p4<65);
p4p((p4p>=65+26+32))=p4((p4p>=65+26+32));
p4p((p4p>=65+26) & (p4p<65+32))=p4((p4p>=65+26) & (p4p<65+32));

p5p=char((p5+char(fix(rand(1,length(p5))*5))));
p5p(p5<65)=p5(p5<65);
p5p((p5p>=65+26+32))=p5((p5p>=65+26+32));
p5p((p5p>=65+26) & (p5p<65+32))=p5((p5p>=65+26) & (p5p<65+32));

p6p=char((p6+char(fix(rand(1,length(p6))*5))));
p6p(p6<65)=p6(p6<65);
p6p((p6p>=65+26+32))=p6((p6p>=65+26+32));
p6p((p6p>=65+26) & (p6p<65+32))=p6((p6p>=65+26) & (p6p<65+32));
