Particle dynamics and effective temperature of jammed granular matter in a slowly sheared 3D Couette cell

We report experimental measurements of particle dynamics on slowly sheared granular matter in a three-dimensional (3D) Couette cell. A closely-packed ensemble of transparent spherical beads is confined by an external pressure and filled with fluid to match both the density and refractive index of the beads. This allows us to track tracer particles embedded in the system and obtain three-dimensional trajectories as a function of time. We study the PDF of the vertical and radial displacements, finding Gaussian and exponential distributions, respectively. For slow shear rates, the mean-square fluctuations in all three directions are found to be dependent only on the angular displacement of the Couette cell. Both the diffusivity and mobility of tracer particles are proportional to the shear rate, giving rise to a constant effective temperature, characteristic of the jammed system.