Which reference state for a granular gas heated by the stochastic thermostat?

Abstract

We study the time evolution of the one-particle distribution function of a granular gas heated by the stochastic thermostat. It is found that, for a wide class of homogeneous initial conditions, memory of the initial conditions is rapidly erased and the system approaches the stationary state through a hydrodynamic state in which all the time dependence of the distribution function goes through the temperature. As a consequence, the simple one parameter scaling velocity distributions reported earlier in this context do not suffice, and a two parameter scaling is required.We find a very good agreement between the theoretical prediction and DSMC simulation results.