Effect of boundary conditions on diffusion in two-dimensional granular gases

We analyze the influence of boundary conditions on numerical simulations of the diffusive properties of a two-dimensional granular gas. We show in particular that periodic boundary conditions introduce unphysical correlations in time that cause the coefficient of diffusion to be strongly dependent on the system size. On the other hand, in large enough systems with hard walls at the boundaries, diffusion is found to be independent of the system size. We compare the results obtained in this case with Langevin theory for an elastic gas. Good agreement is found. We then calculate the relaxation time and the influence of the mass for a particle of radius R_s in a sea of particles of radius R_b. As granular gases are dissipative, we also study the influence of an external random force on the diffusion process in a forced dissipative system. In particular, we analyze differences in the mean-square velocity and displacement between the elastic and inelastic cases.