Mehta A. Granular Physics

New York, "Cambridge University Press", 2007, -322p.The field of granular physics has burgeoned since its development in the late 1980s, when physicists first began to use statistical mechanics to study granular media. They are prototypical of complex systems, manifesting metastability, hysteresis, bistability and a range of other fascinating phenomena.
This book provides a wide-ranging account of developments in granular physics, and lays out the foundations of the statics and dynamics of granular physics. It covers a wide range of subfields, ranging from fluidisation to jamming, and these are modelled through a range of computer simulation and theoretical approaches. Written with an eye to pedagogy and completeness, this book will be a valuable asset for any researcher in this field.
In addition to Professor Mehta’s detailed exposition of granular dynamics, the book contains contributions from Professor Sir Sam Edwards, jointly with Dr Raphael Blumenfeld, on the thermodynamics of granular matter; from Professor Isaac Goldhirsch on granular matter in the fluidised state; and Professor Philippe Claudin on granular statics.Anita Mehta, a former Rhodes scholar, is currently a Radcliffe Fellow at Harvard University. She is well known for being one of the pioneers in granular physics, and is credited with the introduction of many new concepts in this field, in particular to do with the competition of slow and fast modes in granular dynamics.