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A new model for the dynamics of opinion formation is proposed and analysed at the mean-field level. It can be regarded as a generalization of the noisy voter model in which agents update their binary states by copying others and by an intrinsic mechanism affected by the degree of polarization in the system. It also takes into account whether the agents enhance or reduce their intrinsic mechanism upon increasing polarization. Four phases or shapes of the steady-state probability of a fraction of agents in a given state are found (unimodal, bimodal, W and M). In the unimodal (resp. bimodal) phase, the copying (resp. intrinsic) mechanism is globally dominant, while in the W (resp. M) phase the copying (resp. intrinsic) mechanism is the relevant one close to the consensus states while it reduces its influence as approaching coexistence. In the thermodynamic limit, the bimodal and W phases disappear, while the unimodal and M phases prevail. The theoretical results, obtained analytically from the master equation, and the numerical simulations are in good agreement., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures

The fluctuating hydrodynamics by Brey et. al. is analytically solved to get the long-time limit of the fluctuations of the number density, velocity field, and energy density around the homogeneous cooling state of a granular gas, under physical conditions where it keeps stable. Explicit expressions are given for the non-white contributions in the elastic limit. For small dissipation, the latter is shown to be much smaller than the inelastic contributions, in general. The fluctuation-induced Casimir-like forces on the walls of the system are calculated assuming a fluctuating pressure tensor resulting from perturbing its Navier-Stokes expression. This way, the Casimir-like forces emerges as the correlation between the longitudinal velocity and the energy density. Interestingly, the fluctuation-induced forces push/pull the system towards the square or rectangular geometry when they vanish, in good agreement with the event-driven numerical simulations., Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures

Cooperation and defection are social traits whose evolutionary origin is still unresolved. Recent behavioral experiments with humans suggested that strategy changes are driven mainly by the individuals' expectations and not by imitation. This work theoretically analyzes and numerically explores an aspiration-driven strategy updating in a well-mixed population playing games. The payoffs of the game matrix and the aspiration are condensed into just two parameters that allow a comprehensive description of the dynamics. We find continuous and abrupt transitions in the cooperation density with excellent agreement between theory and the Gillespie simulations. Under strong selection, the system can display several levels of steady cooperation or get trapped into absorbing states. These states are still relevant for experiments even when irrational choices are made due to their prolonged relaxation times. Finally, we show that for the particular case of the Prisoner Dilemma, where defection is the dominant strategy under imitation mechanisms, the self-evaluation update instead favors cooperation nonlinearly with the level of aspiration. Thus, our work provides insights into the distinct role between imitation and self-evaluation with no learning dynamics., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures; Correction of typos in the metadata

Although the cooperative dynamics emerging from a network of interacting players has been exhaustively investigated, it is not yet fully understood when and how network reciprocity drives cooperation transitions. In this work, we investigate the critical behavior of evolutionary social dilemmas on structured populations by using the framework of master equations and Monte Carlo simulations. The developed theory describes the existence of absorbing, quasi-absorbing, and mixed strategy states and the transition nature, continuous or discontinuous, between the states as the parameters of the system change. In particular, when the decision-making process is deterministic, in the limit of zero effective temperature of the Fermi function, we find that the copying probabilities are discontinuous functions of the system's parameters and of the network degrees sequence. This may induce abrupt changes in the final state for any system size, in excellent agreement with the Monte Carlo simulation results. Our analysis also reveals the existence of continuous and discontinuous phase transitions for large systems as the temperature increases, which is explained in the mean-field approximation. Interestingly, for some game parameters, we find optimal "social temperatures" maximizing/minimizing the cooperation frequency/density., Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures

How large ecosystems can create and maintain the remarkable biodiversity we see in nature is probably one of the biggest open questions in science, attracting attention from different fields, from Theoretical Ecology to Mathematics and Physics. In this context, modeling the stable coexistence of species competing for limited resources is a particularly challenging task. From a mathematical point of view, coexistence in competitive dynamics can be achieved when dominance among species forms intransitive loops. However, these relationships usually lead to species' relative abundances neutrally cycling without converging to a stable equilibrium. Although in recent years several mechanisms have been proposed, models able to explain species coexistence in competitive communities are still limited. Here we identify locality in the interactions as one of the simplest mechanisms leading to stable species coexistence. We consider a simplified ecosystem where individuals of each species lay on a spatial network and interactions are possible only between nodes within a certain distance. Varying such distance allows to interpolate between local and global competition. Our results demonstrate, within the scope of our model, that species coexist reaching a stable equilibrium when two conditions are met: individuals are embedded in space and can only interact with other individuals within a short distance. On the contrary, when one of these ingredients is missing, large oscillations and neutral cycles emerge., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, 2 Appendices

A model for continuous-opinion dynamics is proposed and studied by taking advantage of its similarities with a mono-dimensional granular gas. Agents interact as in the Deffuant model, with a parameter $\alpha$ controlling the persuasibility of the individuals. The interaction coincides with the collision rule of two grains moving on a line, provided opinions and velocities are identified, with $\alpha$ being the so-called coefficient of normal restitution. Starting from the master equation of the probability density of all opinions, general conditions are given for the system to reach consensus. The case when the interaction frequency is proportional to the $\beta$-power of the relative opinions is studied in more detail. It is shown that the mean-field approximation to the master equation leads to the Boltzmann kinetic equation for the opinion distribution. In this case, the system always approaches consensus, which can be seen as the approach to zero of the opinion temperature, a measure of the width of the opinion distribution. Moreover, the long-time behaviour of the system is characterized by a scaling solution to the Boltzmann equation in which all time dependence occurs through the temperature. The case $\beta=0$ is related to the Deffuant model and is analytically soluble. The scaling distribution is unimodal and independent of $\alpha$. For $\beta>0$ the distribution of opinions is unimodal below a critical value of $|\alpha|$, being multimodal with two maxima above it. This means that agents may approach consensus while being polarized. Near the critical points and for $|\alpha|\ge 0.4$, the distribution of opinions is well approximated by the sum of two Gaussian distributions. Monte Carlo simulations are in agreement with the theoretical results., Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures

The Mpemba effect occurs when two samples at different initial temperatures evolve in such a way that the temperatures cross each other during the relaxation towards equilibrium. In this paper we show the emergence of a Mpemba-like effect in a molecular binary mixture in contact with a thermal reservoir (bath). The interaction between the gaseous particles of the mixture and the thermal reservoir is modeled via a viscous drag force plus a stochastic Langevin-like term. The presence of the external bath couples the time evolution of the total and partial temperatures of each component allowing the appearance of the Mpemba phenomenon, even when the initial temperature differences are of the same order of the temperatures themselves. Analytical results are obtained by considering multitemperature Maxwellian approximations for the velocity distribution functions of each component. The theoretical analysis is carried out for initial states close to and far away (large Mpemba-like effect) from equilibrium. The former situation allows us to develop a simple theory where the time evolution equation for the temperature is linearized around its asymptotic equilibrium solution. This linear theory provides an expression for the crossover time. We also provide a qualitative description of the large Mpemba effect. Our theoretical results agree very well with computer simulations obtained by numerically solving the Enskog kinetic equation by means of the direct simulation Monte Carlo method and by performing molecular dynamics simulations. Finally, preliminary results for driven granular mixtures also show the occurrence of a Mpemba-like effect for inelastic collisions., Comment: 16 pages; 7 figures; the title has been changed; a new section devoted to granular mixtures has been added; to be published in Physics of Fluids

The noisy voter model is a stylised representation of opinion dynamics. Individuals copy opinions from other individuals, and are subject to spontaneous state changes. In the case of two opinion states this model is known to have a noise-driven transition between a unimodal phase, in which both opinions are present, and a bimodal phase in which one of the opinions dominates. The presence of zealots can remove the unimodal and bimodal phases in the model with two opinion states. Here, we study the effects of zealots in noisy voter models with M>2 opinion states on complete interaction graphs. We find that the phase behaviour diversifies, with up to six possible qualitatively different types of stationary states. The presence of zealots removes some of these phases, but not all. We analyse situations in which zealots affect the entire population, or only a fraction of agents, and show that this situation corresponds to a single-community model with a fractional number of zealots, further enriching the phase diagram. Our study is conducted analytically based on effective birth-death dynamics for the number of individuals holding a given opinion. Results are confirmed in numerical simulations., Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures

We study memory dependent binary-state dynamics, focusing on the noisy-voter model. This is a non-Markovian process if we consider the set of binary states of the population as the description variables, or Markovian if we incorporate "age", related to the time one has spent holding the same state, as a part of the description. We show that, in some cases, the model can be reduced to an effective Markovian process, where the age distribution of the population rapidly equilibrates to a quasi-steady state, while the global state of the system is out of equilibrium. This effective Markovian process shares the same phenomenology of the non-linear noisy-voter model and we establish a clear parallelism between these two extensions of the noisy-voter model.

The Navier--Stokes transport coefficients of multicomponent granular suspensions at moderate densities are obtained in the context of the (inelastic) Enskog kinetic theory. The suspension is modeled as an ensemble of solid particles where the influence of the interstitial gas on grains is via a viscous drag force plus a stochastic Langevin-like term defined in terms of a background temperature. In the absence of spatial gradients, it is shown first that the system reaches a homogeneous steady state where the energy lost by inelastic collisions and viscous friction is compensated for by the energy injected by the stochastic force. Once the homogeneous steady state is characterized, a \emph{normal} solution to the set of Enskog equations is obtained by means of the Chapman--Enskog expansion around the \emph{local} version of the homogeneous state. To first-order in spatial gradients, the Chapman--Enskog solution allows us to identify the Navier--Stokes transport coefficients associated with the mass, momentum, and heat fluxes. In addition, the first-order contributions to the partial temperatures and the cooling rate are also calculated. Explicit forms for the diffusion coefficients, the shear and bulk viscosities, and the first-order contributions to the partial temperatures and the cooling rate are obtained in steady-state conditions by retaining the leading terms in a Sonine polynomial expansion. The results show that the dependence of the transport coefficients on inelasticity is clearly different from that found in its granular counterpart (no gas phase). The present work extends previous theoretical results for \emph{dilute} multicomponent granular suspensions [Khalil and Garz\'o, Phys. Rev. E \textbf{88}, 052201 (2013)] to higher densities., Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures; part of the technical details of the previous version have been relegated to a new Appendix; to be published in Phys. Rev. E

A hydrodynamic description for inelastic Maxwell mixtures driven by a stochastic bath with friction is derived. Contrary to previous works where constitutive relations for the fluxes were restricted to states near the homogeneous steady state, here the set of Boltzmann kinetic equations is solved by means of the Chapman--Enskog method by considering a more general time-dependent reference state. Due to this choice, the transport coefficients are given in terms of the solutions of a set of nonlinear differential equations which must be in general numerically solved. The solution to these equations gives the transport coefficients in terms of the parameters of the mixture (masses, diameters, concentration, and coefficients of restitution) and the time-dependent (scaled) parameter $\xi^*$ which determines the influence of the thermostat on the system. The Navier--Stokes transport coefficients are exactly obtained in the special cases of undriven mixtures ($\xi^*=0$) and driven mixtures under steady conditions ($\xi^*=\xi_\text{st}^*$, where $\xi_\text{st}^*$ is the value of the reduced noise strength at the steady state). As a complement, the results for inelastic Maxwell models (IMM) in both undriven and driven steady states are compared against approximate results for inelastic hard spheres (IHS) [Khalil and Garz\'o, Phys. Rev. E \textbf{88}, 052201 (2013)]. While the IMM predictions for the diffusion transport coefficients show an excellent agreement with those derived for IHS, significant quantitative differences are specially found in the case of the heat flux transport coefficients., Comment: To be published in J. Phys. A: Math. Theor

We study the evolution of cooperation as a birth-death process in spatially extended populations. The benefit from the altruistic behavior of a cooperator is implemented by decreasing the death rate of its direct neighbors. The cost of cooperation is the increase of a cooperator's death rate proportional to the number of its neighbors. When cooperation has higher cost than benefit, cooperators disappear. Then the dynamics reduces to the contact process with defectors as the single particle type. Increasing the benefit-cost ratio above 1, the extinction transition of the contact process splits into a set of nonequilibrium transitions between four regimes when increasing the baseline death rate $p$ as a control parameter: (i) defection only, (ii) coexistence, (iii) cooperation only, (iv) extinction. We investigate the transitions between these regimes. As the main result, we find that full cooperation is established at the extinction transition as long as benefit is strictly larger than cost. Qualitatively identical phase diagrams are obtained for populations on square lattices and in pair approximation. Spatial correlations with nearest neighbors only are thus sufficient for sustained cooperation., Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures

The voter model with memory-dependent dynamics is theoretically and numerically studied at the mean-field level. The `internal age', or time an individual spends holding the same state, is added to the set of binary states of the population, such that the probability of changing state (or activation probability $p_i$) depends on this age. A closed set of integro-differential equations describing the time evolution of the fraction of individuals with a given state and age is derived, and from it analytical results are obtained characterizing the behavior of the system close to the absorbing states. In general, different age-dependent activation probabilities have different effects on the dynamics. When the activation probability $p_i$ is an increasing function of the age $i$, the system reaches a steady state with coexistence of opinions. In the case of aging, with $p_i$ being a decreasing function, either the system reaches consensus or it gets trapped in a frozen state, depending on the value of $p_\infty$ (zero or not) and the velocity of $p_i$ approaching $p_\infty$. Moreover, when the system reaches consensus, the time ordering of the system can be exponential ($p_\infty>0$) or power-law like ($p_\infty=0$). Exact conditions for having one or another behavior, together with the equations and explicit expressions for the exponents, are provided.

The adiabatic piston problem is solved at the mesoscale using a Kinetic Theory approach. The problem is to determine the evolution towards equilibrium of two gases separated by a wall with only one degree of freedom (the adiabatic piston). A closed system of equations for the distribution functions of the gases conditioned to a position of the piston and the distribution function of the piston is derived from the Liouville equation, under the assumption of a generalized molecular chaos. It is shown that the resulting kinetic description has the canonical equilibrium as a steady-state solution. Moreover, the Boltzmann entropy, which includes the motion of the piston, verifies the $\mathcal H$-theorem. The results are generalized to any short-ranged repulsive potentials among particles and include the ideal gas as a limiting case., Comment: 25 pages, 2 figures

Mass transport of a driven granular binary mixture is analyzed from the inelastic Boltzmann kinetic equation for inelastic Maxwell models (IMM). The mixture is driven by a thermostat constituted by two terms: a stochastic force and a drag force proportional to the particle velocity. The combined action of both forces attempts to mimic the interaction of solid particles with the interstitial surrounding gas. As with ordinary gases, the use of IMM allows us to exactly evaluate the velocity moments of the Boltzmann collision operator and so, it opens up the possibility of obtaining the exact forms of the Navier--Stokes transport coefficients of the granular mixture. In this work, the diffusion coefficients associated with the mass flux are explicitly determined in terms of the parameters of the mixture. As a first step, the steady homogeneous state reached by the system when the energy lost by collisions is compensated for by the energy injected by the thermostat is addressed. In this steady state, the ratio of kinetic temperatures are determined and compared against molecular dynamics simulations for inelastic hard spheres (IHS). The comparison shows an excellent agreement, even for strong inelasticity and/or disparity in masses and diameters. As a second step, the set of kinetic equations for the mixture is solved by means of the Chapman-Enskog method for states near homogeneous steady states. In the first-order approximation, the mass flux is obtained and the corresponding diffusion transport coefficients identified. The results show that the predictions for IMM obtained in this work coincide with those previously derived for IHS in the first-Sonine approximation when the non-Gaussian corrections to the zeroth-order approximation are neglected., Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures; paper submitted for its publication in AIP Conference Proceedings (RGD31)

The influence of contrarians on the noisy voter model is studied at the mean-field level. The noisy voter model is a variant of the voter model where agents can adopt two opinions, optimistic or pessimistic, and can change them by means of an imitation (herding) and an intrinsic (noise) mechanisms. An ensemble of noisy voters undergoes a finite-size phase transition, upon increasing the relative importance of the noise to the herding, form a bimodal phase where most of the agents shear the same opinion to a unimodal phase where almost the same fraction of agent are in opposite states. By the inclusion of contrarians we allow for some voters to adopt the opposite opinion of other agents (anti-herding). We first consider the case of only contrarians and show that the only possible steady state is the unimodal one. More generally, when voters and contrarians are present, we show that the bimodal-unimodal transition of the noisy voter model prevails only if the number of contrarians in the system is smaller than four, and their characteristic rates are small enough. For the number of contrarians bigger or equal to four, the voters and the contrarians can be seen only in the unimodal phase. Moreover, if the number of voters and contrarians, as well as the noise and herding rates, are of the same order, then the probability functions of the steady state are very well approximated by the Gaussian distribution.

We present an analytical framework to study the first-passage (FP) and first-return (FR) distributions for the broad family of models described by the one-dimensional Fokker-Planck equation in finite domains, identifying general properties of these distributions for different classes of models. When in the Fokker-Planck equation the diffusion coefficient is positive (nonzero) and the drift term is bounded, as in the case of a Brownian walker, both distributions may exhibit a power-law decay with exponent -3/2 for intermediate times. We discuss how the influence of an absorbing state changes this exponent. The absorbing state is characterized by a vanishing diffusion coefficient and/or a diverging drift term. Remarkably, the exponent of the Brownian walker class of models is still found, as long as the departure and arrival regions are far enough from the absorbing state, but the range of times where the power law is observed narrows. Close enough to the absorbing point, though, a new exponent may appear. The particular value of the exponent depends on the behavior of the diffusion and the drift terms of the Fokker-Planck equation. We focus on the case of a diffusion term vanishing linearly at the absorbing point. In this case, the FP and FR distributions are similar to those of the voter model, characterized by a power law with exponent -2. As an illustration of the general theory, we compare it with exact analytical solutions and extensive numerical simulations of a two-parameter voter-like family models. We study the behavior of the FP and FR distributions by tuning the importance of the absorbing points throughout changes of the parameters. Finally, the possibility of inferring relevant information about the steady-sate probability distribution of a model from the FP and FR distributions is addressed., Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures

The Navier--Stokes order hydrodynamic equations for a low-density driven granular mixture obtained previously [Khalil and Garz\'o, Phys. Rev. E \textbf{88}, 052201 (2013)] from the Chapman--Enskog solution to the Boltzmann equation are considered further. The four transport coefficients associated with the heat flux are obtained in terms of the mass ratio, the size ratio, composition, coefficients of restitution, and the driven parameters of the model. Their quantitative variation on the control parameters of the system is demonstrated by considering the leading terms in a Sonine polynomial expansion to solve the exact integral equations. As an application of these results, the stability of the homogeneous steady state is studied. In contrast to the results obtained in undriven granular mixtures, the stability analysis of the linearized Navier--Stokes hydrodynamic equations shows that the transversal and longitudinal modes are (linearly) stable with respect to long enough wavelength excitations. This conclusion agrees with a previous analysis made for single granular gases., Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures; to be published in Phys. Rev. E

The homogeneous cooling state (HCS) of a granular gas described by the inelastic Boltzmann equation is reconsidered. As usual, particles are taken as inelastic hard disks or spheres, but now the coefficient of normal restitution $\alpha$ is allowed to take negative values $\alpha\in[-1,1]$, a simple way of modeling more complicated inelastic interactions. The distribution function of the HCS is studied at the long-time limit, as well as for intermediate times. At the long-time limit, the relevant information of the HCS is given by a scaling distribution function $\phi_s(c)$, where the time dependence occurs through a dimensionless velocity $c$. For $\alpha\gtrsim -0.75$, $\phi_s$ remains close to the gaussian distribution in the thermal region, its cumulants and exponential tails being well described by the first Sonine approximation. On the contrary, for $\alpha\lesssim -0.75$, the distribution function becomes multimodal, its maxima located at $c\ne 0$, and its observable tails algebraic. The latter is a consequence of an unbalanced relaxation-dissipation competition, and is analytically demonstrated for $\alpha\simeq -1$ thanks to a reduction of the Boltzmann equation to a Fokker-Planck-like equation. Finally, a generalized scaling solution to the Boltzmann equation is also found $\phi(c,\beta)$. Apart from the time dependence occurring through the dimensionless velocity, $\phi(c,\beta)$ depends on time through a new parameter $\beta$ measuring the departure of the HCS from its long-time limit. It is shown that $\phi(c,\beta)$ describes the time evolution of the HCS for almost all times. The relevance of the new scaling is also discussed., Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures

The influence of zealots on the noisy voter model is studied theoretically and numerically at the mean-field level. The noisy voter model is a modification of the voter model that includes a second mechanism for transitions between states: apart from the original herding processes, voters may change their states because of an intrinsic, noisy in origin source. By increasing the importance of the noise with respect to the herding, the system exhibits a finite-size phase transition from a quasi-consensus state, where most of the voters share the same opinion, to a one with coexistence. Upon introducing some zealots, or voters with fixed opinion, the latter scenario may change significantly. We unveil the new situations by carrying out a systematic numerical and analytical study of a fully connected network for voters, but allowing different voters to be directly influenced by different zealots. We show that this general system is equivalent to a system of voters without zealots, but with heterogeneous values of their parameters characterizing herding and noisy dynamics. We find excellent agreement between our analytical and numerical results. Noise and herding/zealotry acting together in the voter model yields not a trivial mixture of the scenarios with the two mechanisms acting alone: it represents a situation where the global-local (noise-herding) competitions is coupled to a symmetry breaking (zealots). In general, the zealotry enhances the effective noise of the system, which may destroy the original quasi--consensus state, and can introduce a bias towards the opinion of the majority of zealots, hence breaking the symmetry of the system and giving rise to new phases ..., Comment: 13 pages, 15 figures

A stochastic birth-death competition model for particles with excluded volume is proposed. The particles move, reproduce, and die on a regular lattice. While the death rate is constant, the birth rate is spatially nonlocal and implements inter-particle competition by a dependence on the number of particles within a finite distance. The finite volume of particles is accounted for by fixing an upper value to the number of particles that can occupy a lattice node, compromising births and movements. We derive closed macroscopic equations for the density of particles and spatial correlation at two adjacent sites. Under different conditions, the description is further reduced to a single equation for the particle density that contains three terms: diffusion, a linear death, and a highly nonlinear and nonlocal birth term. Steady-state homogeneous solutions, their stability which reveals spatial pattern formation, and the dynamics of time-dependent homogeneous solutions are discussed and compared, in the one-dimensional case, with numerical simulations of the particle system., Comment: 21 pages

A steady state of a granular gas with homogeneous granular temperature, no mass flow, and nonzero heat flux is studied. The state is created by applying an external position--dependent force or by enclosing the grains inside a curved two--dimensional silo. At a macroscopic level, the state is identified with one solution to the inelastic Navier--Stokes equations, due to the coupling between the heat flux induced by the density gradient and the external force. On the contrary, at the mesoscopic level, by exactly solving a BGK model or the inelastic Boltzmann equation in an approximate way, a one--parametric family of solutions is found. Molecular dynamics simulations of the system in the quasi--elastic limit are in agreement with the theoretical results.

A mixture of dissipative hard grains generically exhibits a breakdown of kinetic energy equipartition. The undriven and thus freely cooling binary problem, in the tracer limit where the density of one species becomes minute, may exhibit an extreme form of this breakdown, with the minority species carrying a finite fraction of the total kinetic energy of the system. We investigate the fingerprint of this non-equilibrium phase transition, akin to an ordering process, on transport properties. The analysis, performed by solving the Boltzmann kinetic equation from a combination of analytical and Monte Carlo techniques, hints at the possible failure of hydrodynamics in the ordered region. As a relevant byproduct of the study, the behaviour of the second and fourth-degree velocity moments is also worked out., Comment: The title has been changed. The paper has been enlarged with respect to our first version. 13 pages, 9 figures. To be published in EPJE

The homogeneous state of a binary mixture of smooth inelastic hard disks or spheres is analyzed. The mixture is driven by a thermostat composed by two terms: a stochastic force and a drag force proportional to the particle velocity. The combined action of both forces attempts to model the interaction of the mixture with a bath or surrounding fluid. The problem is studied by means of two independent and complementary routes. First, the Enskog kinetic equation with a Fokker-Planck term describing interactions of particles with thermostat is derived. The ratio of kinetic temperatures $T_1/T_2$ and the fourth-degree velocity moments $\lambda_1$ and $\lambda_2$ (which measure non-Gaussian properties of $\varphi_i$) are explicitly determined as a function of the mass ratio, size ratio, composition, density and coefficients of restitution. Secondly, to assess the reliability of the theoretical results, molecular dynamics simulations of a binary granular mixture of spheres are performed for two values of the coefficient of restitution ($\alpha=0.9$ and 0.8) and three different solid volume fractions ($\phi=0.00785$, 0.1 and 0.2). Comparison between kinetic theory and computer simulations for the temperature ratio shows excellent agreement, even for moderate densities and strong dissipation. In the case of the cumulants $\lambda_1$ and $\lambda_2$, good agreement is found for the lower densities although significant discrepancies between theory and simulation are observed with increasing density., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, to be published in J. Chem. Phys

The hydrodynamic Burnett equations and the associated transport coefficients are exactly evaluated for generalized inelastic Maxwell models. In those models, the one-particle distribution function obeys the inelastic Boltzmann equation, with a velocity-independent collision rate proportional to the $\gamma$ power of the temperature. The pressure tensor and the heat flux are obtained to second order in the spatial gradients of the hydrodynamic fields with explicit expressions for all the Burnett transport coefficients as functions of $\gamma$, the coefficient of normal restitution, and the dimensionality of the system. Some transport coefficients that are related in a simple way in the elastic limit become decoupled in the inelastic case. As a byproduct, existing results in the literature for three-dimensional elastic systems are recovered, and a generalization to any dimension of the system is given. The structure of the present results is used to estimate the Burnett coefficients for inelastic hard spheres., Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures; v2: new Appendix (D) and new references added

The structural arrest of a polymeric suspension might be driven by an increase of the cross--linker concentration, that drives the gel transition, as well as by an increase of the polymer density, that induces a glass transition. These dynamical continuous (gel) and discontinuous (glass) transitions might interfere, since the glass transition might occur within the gel phase, and the gel transition might be induced in a polymer suspension with glassy features. Here we study the interplay of these transitions by investigating via event--driven molecular dynamics simulation the relaxation dynamics of a polymeric suspension as a function of the cross--linker concentration and the monomer volume fraction. We show that the slow dynamics within the gel phase is characterized by a long sub-diffusive regime, which is due both to the crowding as well as to the presence of a percolating cluster. In this regime, the transition of structural arrest is found to occur either along the gel or along the glass line, depending on the length scale at which the dynamics is probed. Where the two line meet there is no apparent sign of higher order dynamical singularity. Logarithmic behavior typical of $A_{3}$ singularity appear inside the gel phase along the glass transition line. These findings seem to be related to the results of the mode coupling theory for the $F_{13}$ schematic model.

Segregation induced by a thermal gradient of an impurity in a driven low-density granular gas is studied. The system is enclosed between two parallel walls from which we input thermal energy to the gas. We study here steady states occurring when the inelastic cooling is exactly balanced by some external energy input (stochastic force or viscous heating), resulting in a uniform heat flux. A segregation criterion based on Navier-Stokes granular hydrodynamics is written in terms of the tracer diffusion transport coefficients, whose dependence on the parameters of the system (masses, sizes and coefficients of restitution) is explicitly determined from a solution of the inelastic Boltzmann equation. The theoretical predictions are validated by means of Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations, showing that Navier-Stokes hydrodynamics produces accurate segregation criteria even under strong shearing and/or inelasticity., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. E

The transport coefficients of a granular binary mixture driven by a stochastic bath with friction are determined from the inelastic Boltzmann kinetic equation. A normal solution is obtained via the Chapman-Enskog method for states near homogeneous steady states. The mass, momentum, and heat fluxes are determined to first order in the spatial gradients of the hydrodynamic fields, and the associated transport coefficients are identified. They are given in terms of the solutions of a set of coupled linear integral equations. As in the monocomponent case, since the collisional cooling cannot be compensated locally for by the heat produced by the external driving, the reference distributions (zeroth-order approximations) $f_i^{(0)}$ ($i=1,2$) for each species depend on time through their dependence on the pressure and the temperature. Explicit forms for the diffusion transport coefficients and the shear viscosity coefficient are obtained by assuming the steady state conditions and by considering the leading terms in a Sonine polynomial expansion. A comparison with previous results obtained for granular Brownian motion and by using a (local) stochastic thermostat is also carried out. The present work extends previous theoretical results derived for monocomponent dense gases [V. Garz\'o, M. G. Chamorro, and F. Vega Reyes, Phys. Rev. E \textbf{87}, 032201 (2013)] to granular mixtures at low density., Comment: 7 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. E

The steady states of two gases of hard spheres or disks separated by an adiabatic piston in presence of a temperature gradient are discussed. The temperature field is generated by two thermal walls at different temperatures, each of them in contact with one of the gases. The presence of the piston strongly affects the hydrodynamic fields, inducing a jump in its vicinity. A simple kinetic theory model is formulated. Its predictions are shown to be in good agreement with molecular dynamics simulation results. The applicability of the minimum entropy production principle is analyzed, and it is found that it only provides an accurate description of the system in the limit of a small temperature gradient.

A low density binary mixture of granular gases is considered within the Boltzmann kinetic theory. One component, the intruders, is taken to be dilute with respect to the other, and thermal segregation of the two species is described for a special exact solution to the Boltzmann equation. This solution has a macroscopic hydrodynamic representation with a constant temperature gradient and is referred to as the Fourier state. The thermal diffusion factor characterizing conditions for segregation is calculated without the usual restriction to Navier-Stokes hydrodynamics. Molecular dynamics simulations are reported for comparison with the results for this idealized Fourier state.

The steady states of two vibrated granular gases separated by an adiabatic piston are investigated. The system exhibits a non-equilibrium phase transition with an spontaneous symmetry breaking. Even if the gases at both sides of the piston have the same number of particles and are mechanically identical, their steady volumes and temperatures can be rather different. The transition can be explained by a simple kinetic theory model expressing mechanical equilibrium and the energy balance occurring in the system. The model predictions are in good agreement with molecular dynamics simulation results. The macroscopic description of the steady states is discussed, as well as some physical implications of the symmetry breaking., Comment: 5 figures

A dilute suspension of impurities in a low density gas is described by the Boltzmann and Boltzman-Lorentz kinetic theory. Scaling forms for the species distribution functions allow an exact determination of the hydrodynamic fields, without restriction to small thermal gradients or Navier-Stokes hydrodynamics. The thermal diffusion factor characterizing sedimentation is identified in terms of collision integrals as functions of the mechanical properties of the particles and the temperature gradient. An evaluation of the collision integrals using Sonine polynomial approximations is discussed. Conditions for segregation both along and opposite the temperature gradient are found, in contrast to the Navier-Stokes description for which no segregation occurs., Comment: 9 figures

Two granular gases separated by an adiabatic piston and initially in the same macroscopic state are considered. It is found that a phase transition with an spontaneous symmetry breaking occurs. When the mass of the piston is increased beyond a critical value, the piston moves to a stationary position different from the middle of the system. The transition is accurately described by a simple kinetic model that takes into account the velocity fluctuations of the piston. Interestingly, the final state is not characterized by the equality of the temperatures of the subsystems but by the cooling rates being the same. Some relevant consequences of this feature are discussed., Comment: 6 figures