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Phys. Rev. E 70, 060301 (2004) [4 pages]

Mach cone in a shallow granular fluid

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Patrick Heil *, E. C. Rericha †, Daniel I. Goldman, and Harry L. Swinney ‡
Center for Nonlinear Dynamics and Department of Physics, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA

Rapid Communication Received 16 July 2004; published 23 December 2004

We study the V -shaped wake (Mach cone) formed by a cylindrical rod moving through a thin, vertically vibrated granular layer. The wake, analogous to a shock (hydraulic jump) in shallow water, appears for rod velocities vR greater than a critical velocity c . We measure the half angle θ of the wake as a function of vR and layer depth h . The angle satisfies the Mach relation, sin  θ=c∕vR , where c=sqrt[gh] , even for h as small as one-particle diameter.


©2004 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRE/v70/e060301
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.70.060301
PACS: 45.70.−n, 47.40.Ki, 41.60.Bq, 47.35.+i

* Electronic address: Patrick.Heil@urz.uni-heidelberg.de
† Electronic address: erin@chaos.utexas.edu
‡ Electronic address: swinney@chaos.utexas.edu

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