A fundamental understanding of the underlying physics of granular (particulate) systems is
not only of academic interest, but is also highly relevant for industrial applications …

In 1989, Sir Sam Edwards made the visionary proposition to treat jammed granular materials
using a volume ensemble of equiprobable jammed states in analogy to thermal equilibrium …

The arrangements of particles and forces in granular materials have a complex organization
on multiple spatial scales that range from local structures to mesoscale and system-wide …

In materials science, high performance is typically associated with regularity and order,
while disorder and the presence of defects are assumed to lead to sub-optimal outcomes …

We present measurements of the stress response of packings formed from a wide range of
particle shapes. Besides spheres these include convex shapes such as the Platonic solids …

In natural settings, microbes tend to grow in dense populations,,, where they need to push
against their surroundings to accommodate space for new cells. The associated contact …

Over 200 years after Coulomb's studies, a general connection between the mechanical
response of a granular material and the constituents' shape remains unknown,,,,,,,,. The key …

Granular physics has made considerable progress during the past decades in the
understanding of static and dynamic properties of large ensembles of interacting …

The flowing, jamming, and avalanche behavior of granular materials is satisfyingly universal
and vexingly hard to tune: A granular flow is typically intermittent and will irremediably jam if …

We investigate the structural, vibrational, and mechanical properties of jammed packings of
deformable particles with shape degrees of freedom in three dimensions (3D). Each 3D …