Dynamics and avalanches in a system exhibiting granular collapse

• The dynamics of quasi-2D polydisperse granular particles is characterized.
• Evidence is found that aging in glass-like systems is dominated by avalanches.
• Relaxation resembles that of some 3D colloidal monodisperse hard sphere glasses.
• Avalanches may play a role in the dynamics of a wide variety glassy systems.

The dynamics of an experimental driven quasi-2D system of polydisperse particles in a cluster formed by granular collapse is characterized via the self-intermediate scattering function and the mean-squared displacement and is compared with monodisperse experimental and computational systems. The dynamics, despite the difference in dimensionality, is shown to resemble that of de-vitrification in certain simulations of 3D colloidal monodisperse hard sphere glasses in that avalanches are a key feature.