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Abstract
We consider the interaction of a rigid, frictionless, inelastic
particle with a rigid boundary that has a corner. Typically, two
possible final outcomes can occur: the particle escapes from the
corner after experiencing a certain number of collisions with the
corner, or the particle experiences an inelastic collapse in which
an infinite number of collisions can occur in a finite time
interval. For the former case, we determine the number of
collisions that the particle will experience with the boundary
before escaping the corner. For the latter case, we determine the
conditions for which inelastic collapse can occur. For a corner
composed of two straight walls, we derive simple analytic
solutions and show that for a given coefficient of restitution,
there is a critical corner angle above which inelastic collapse
cannot occur. We show that as the corner angle tends to the
critical corner angle from below, the process of inelastic
collapse takes infinitely long. We also show a surprising
phenomenon that if the corner has the form of a cusp, the particle
can have an infinite number of collisions with the boundary in a
finite time interval without losing all of its energy, and
eventually escapes from the corner.
Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary: 70E18; Secondary: 70F25.
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