Rattler-induced aging dynamics in jammed granular systems

Granular materials jam when developing a network of contact forces able to resist the applied stresses. Through numerical simulations of the dynamics of the jamming process, we show that the jamming transition does not occur when the kinetic energy vanishes. Rather, as the system jams, the kinetic energy becomes dominated by rattler particles, which scatter within their cages. The relaxation of the kinetic energy in the jammed configuration exhibits a double power-law decay, which we interpret in terms of the interplay between backbone and rattler particles.