Areas of Interest
Most physical systems are not in equilibrium, but rather are subject to driving and/or dissipation. Far from equilibrium, where nonlinear effects become important, these systems display a rich array of complex behaviors. Systems can be dynamic, chaotic, or turbulent, and more remarkably can produce static patterns or exhibit persistent dynamics while remaining statistically stationary. Although there is typically no free-energy-like functional to minimize in a nonequilibrium system, quantities analogous to those used in equilibrium statistical mechanics can often elucidate the mean behavior.
Recent experiments address:
-- pattern formation and spatiotemporal chaos in fluid convection
-- the statistical mechanics of granular materials
-- morphological instabilities in complex fluids
-- laboratory models of geophysical processes (earthquakes and meteor impacts)
Recent Publications
"Equipartition of rotational and translational energy in a dense granular gas."
Kiri Nichol and Karen E. Daniels.
Physical Review Letters 108, 018001 (2012).
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"Sound propagation and force chains in granular materials."
Eli T. Owens and Karen E. Daniels.
Europhysics Letters 94, 54005 (2011).
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"Granular controls on periodicity of stick-slip events: kinematics and force-chains in an experimental fault."
Nicholas W. Hayman, Lucie Ducloue, Kate L. Foco, Karen E. Daniels.
Pure and Applied Geophysics (2011).
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"Local origins of volume fraction fluctuations in dense granular materials."
James G. Puckett, Frederic Lechenault, Karen E. Daniels.
Physical Review E 83: 041301 (2011).
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"Universal shapes formed by two interacting cracks."
Melissa L. Fender, Frederic Lechenault, Karen E. Daniels.
Physical Review Letters 105:125505 (2010).
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"Fluorescent visualization of a spreading surfactant."
David W. Fallest, Adele M. Lichtenberger, Christopher J. Fox, and Karen E. Daniels.
New Journal of Physics, 12: 073029 (2010).
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"Equilibration in Granular Subsystems."
Frederic Lechenault and Karen E. Daniels.
Soft Matter. 6: 3074 (2010)
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"A Porous Convection Model for Small-Scale Grass Patterns."
Sally E. Thompson and Karen E. Daniels.
The American Naturalist., 175: E10-E15 (2010).
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"Mixing and segregation rates in sheared granular materials."
L. A. Golick and K. E. Daniels.
Phys. Rev. E., 80: 042301 (2009).
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"Force chains in seismogenic faults visualized with photoelastic granular shear experiments."
K. E. Daniels and N. W. Hayman.
Journal of Geophysical Research, 113: B11411 (2008).
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"Instabilities in droplets spreading on gels."
K. E. Daniels, S. Mukhopadhyay, P. J. Houseworth, and R. P. Behringer.
Physical Review Letters,99:124501, (2007).
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