Experimental study of energy transport between two granular gas thermostats

Abstract

We report on the energy transport between two coupled probes in contact with granular thermostats at different temperatures. In our experiment, two identical blades, which are electromechanically coupled, are immersed in two granular gases maintained in different non-equilibrium stationary states, characterized by different temperatures. First, we show that the energy flux from one probe to another is, in temporal average, proportional to the temperature difference, as in the case of equilibrium thermostats. Second, we observe that the instantaneous flux is highly intermittent and that fluctuations exhibit an asymmetry which increases with the temperature difference. Interestingly, this asymmetry, related to irreversibility, is correctly accounted for by a relation strongly evoking the Fluctuation Theorem. As is, our experiment is a simple macroscopic realisation, suitable for the study of energy exchanges between systems in non-equilibrium steady states.

References in corpus (8)

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• Non equilibrium steady states: fluctuations and large deviations of the density and of the current
• Classical and Quantum Fluctuation Theorems for Heat Exchange
• On the heat flux and entropy produced by thermal fluctuations
• Statistical properties of the energy exchanged between two heat baths coupled by thermal fluctuations
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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Granular rotor as a probe for a non-equilibrium bath
• Transient exchange fluctuation theorems for heat using Hamiltonian framework: Classical and Quantum
• Statistical properties of the energy flux between two NESS thermostats