Abstract

We perform the analog to "water bell" experiments with granular jets. Rebounding from cylindrical targets, wide granular jets produce sheets or cones with shapes that mimic a zero-surface-tension liquid. The jets' particulate nature appears when the number of particles in the cross section is decreased: the emerging structures broaden, gradually disintegrating into diffuse sprays. The experiment has a counterpart in the behavior of quark-gluon plasmas generated by colliding heavy ions. There, a high collision density gives rise to collective behavior also described as a liquid. © 2007 The American Physical Society.