Cooling of a granular gas mixture in microgravity

Abstract: Granular gases are fascinating non-equilibrium systems with interesting features such as spontaneous clustering and non-Gaussian velocity distributions. Mixtures of different components represent a much more natural composition than monodisperse ensembles, but attracted comparably little attention so far. We present the first experimental observation and characterization of a mixture of rod-like particles with different sizes and masses in microgravity. Kinetic energy decay rates during granular cooling and collision rates were determined and Haff's law for homogeneous granular cooling was confirmed. Thereby, energy equipartition between the mixture components and between individual degrees of freedom is violated. Heavier particles keep a slightly higher average kinetic energy than lighter ones. Experimental results are supported by numerical simulations.