Diffusion and mixing in gravity-driven dense granular flows

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We study the transport properties of particles draining from a silo using imaging and direct particle tracking. The particle displacements show a universal transition from super-diffusion to normal diffusion, as a function of the distance fallen, independent of the flow speed. In the super-diffusive (but sub-ballistic) regime, which occurs before a particle falls through its diameter, the displacements have fat-tailed and anisotropic distributions. In the diffusive regime, we observe very slow cage breaking and Peclet numbers of order 100, contrary to the only previous microscopic model (based on diffusing voids). Overall, our experiments show that diffusion and mixing are dominated by geometry, consistent with fluctuating contact networks but not thermal collisions, as in normal fluids.