Non-equilibrium coexistence between a fluid and a hotter or colder crystal of granular hard disks.

Abstract

Non-equilibrium phase coexistence is commonly observed in both biological and artificial systems, yet understanding it remains a significant challenge. Unlike equilibrium systems, where free energy provides a unifying framework, the absence of such a quantity in non-equilibrium settings complicates their theoretical understanding. Granular materials, driven out of equilibrium by energy dissipation during collisions, serve as an ideal platform to investigate these systems, offering insights into the parallels and distinctions between equilibrium and non-equilibrium phase behavior. For example, the coexisting dense phase is typically colder than the dilute phase, a result usually attributed to greater dissipation in denser regions. In this article, we demonstrate that this is not always the case. Using a simple numerical granular model, we show that a hot solid and a cold liquid can coexist in granular systems. This counterintuitive phenomenon arises because the collision frequency can be lower in the solid phase than in the liquid phase, consistent with equilibrium results for hard-disk systems. We further demonstrate that kinetic theory can be extended to accurately predict phase temperatures even at very high packing fractions, including within the solid phase. Our results highlight the importance of collisional dynamics and energy exchange in determining phase behavior in granular materials, offering new insights into non-equilibrium phase coexistence and the complex physics underlying granular systems.