GRANULAR MATTER

虽然在粒状材料中观察到的许多现象还没有得到充分的理解，但利用统计力学的现代工具对我们进一步理解作出了重要贡献。这些工具适用于无序系统、相变、不稳定性或间歇行为以及在最新和最强大的计算机上进行离散粒子模拟的性能。然而，直到现在，许多这样的结果只在物理文献中被发现。此外，物理学家往往不知道工程师在更专业的技术期刊上发表的理论和结果。因此，《颗粒物质》杂志是从事颗粒介质基础研究的各个学科研究人员之间交流的平台。它有助于建立一种共同的语言，并在一个单一的屋檐下收集文章，这些文章到目前为止已经在不同领域的许多期刊上发表。

Although many phenomena observed in granular materials are still not yet fully understood, important contributions have been made to further our understanding using modern tools from statistical mechanics. These tools apply to disordered systems, phase transitions, instabilities or intermittent behavior and the performance of discrete particle simulations on the latest and most powerful computers. Until now, however, many of these results were only to be found scattered throughout the physics literature. Furthermore, physicists are often unaware of the theories and results published by engineers in more specialized technical journals.The journal Granular Matter thus serves as a platform of communication among researchers of various disciplines who are involved in the basic research of granular media. It helps to establish a common language and gather articles under one single roof that up to now have been spread over many journals in a variety of fields.