| The slow compaction of a gently tapped granular packing is reminiscent of the low-temperature dynamics of structural and spin glasses. Here, I probe the dynamical spectrum of granular compaction by measuring a complex (frequency-dependent) volumetric susceptibility c&d5;u . While the packing density rho displays glass-like slow relaxations (aging) and history-dependence (memory) at low tapping amplitudes, the susceptibility c&d5;u displays very weak aging effects, and its spectrum shows no sign of a rapidly growing timescale. These features place c&d5;u in sharp contrast to its dielectric and magnetic counterparts in structural and spin glasses; instead, c&d5;u bears close similarities to the complex specific heat of spin glasses. This, I suggest, indicates the glass-like dynamics in granular compaction are governed by statistically rare relaxation processes that become increasingly separated in timescale from the typical relaxations of the system. Finally, I examine the effect of finite system size on the spectrum of compaction dynamics. Starting from the ansatz that low frequency processes correspond to large scale particle rearrangements, I suggest the observed finite size effects are consistent with the suppression of large-scale collective rearrangements in small systems. |
