Scaling probability distribution of granular chains in two dimensions

• DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2014.03.066
• Publication Date: 2014-04-03T15:34:53Z
• Authors: Guan Wang; Ning Zheng; Pingping Wen; Liangsheng Li; Qingfan Shi
• Keywords: 0103 physical sciences; 01 natural sciences

Abstract We experimentally investigate the scaling probability distributions of various intrachain distances of granular chains in two-dimensional static packing, the chain length of which ranges from N = 64 to 2048. With the scaling method proposed in the polymer theory, the scaled data from granular chains tend to cluster together so as to form a single experimental fitting curve. We find that the statistical distributions for all chains show a striking scaling behavior which can be described by Redner–des Cloizeaux formula in polymer theory. Finally, a crucial contact exponent is estimated from the fitting curve and compared with that from self-avoiding walk and compacted polymer models.