Nondestructive identification of impurities in granular medium

Abstract

We found differing characteristics in the backscattered signal depending on the presence of light and heavy impurities in a granular chain. The difference is due to soliton confinement in the region of the light impurity of the granular medium, while there is no such phenomenon for the case of a heavy impurity. This difference may be used to discriminate nondestructively between light and heavy impurities in the granular medium.