The Statistical Physics of Athermal Materials Dapeng Bi,1 Silke Henkes,2 Karen E. Daniels,3 and Bulbul Chakraborty4 1Department of Physics, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244 2ICSMB, Department of Physics, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, AB24 3UE, United Kingdom 3Department of Physics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695 4Martin Fisher School of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts 02454; email:
[email protected] Annu. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys. 2015. 6:63–83 Keywords The Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics is granular materials, statistical physics, athermal online at conmatphys.annualreviews.org This article’s doi: Abstract 10.1146/annurev-conmatphys-031214-014336 At the core of equilibrium statistical mechanics lies the notion of sta- Copyright © 2015 by Annual Reviews. tistical ensembles: a collection of microstates, each occurring with All rights reserved a given a priori probability that depends on only a few macroscopic parameters, such as temperature, pressure, volume, and energy. In this review, we discuss recent advances in establishing statistical ensem- bles for athermal materials. The broad class of granular and particu- Access provided by Syracuse University Library on 07/22/15. For personal use only. late materials is immune to the effects of thermal fluctuations because Annu. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys. 2015.6:63-83. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org the constituents are macroscopic. In addition, interactions between grains are frictional and dissipative,