The jamming transition of granular media

We briefly review the basics ideas and results of a recently proposed statistical mechanical approach to granular materials. Using lattice models from standard Statistical Mechanics and results from a mean field replica approach and Monte Carlo simulations we find a jamming transition in granular media closely related to the glass transition in super-cooled liquids. These models reproduce the logarithmic relaxation in granular compaction and reversible-irreversible lines, in agreement with experimental data. The models also exhibit aging effects and breakdown of the usual fluctuation dissipation relation. It is shown that the glass transition may be responsible for the logarithmic relaxation and may be related to the cooperative effects underlying many phenomena of granular materials such as the Reynolds transition.
18 pages with 6 postscript figures. to appear in J.Phys: Cond. Mat