Fluctuations of internal energy flow in a vibrated granular gas.

The nonequilibrium fluctuations of power flux in a fluidized granular media have been recently measured in an experiment [Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 164301 (2004)], which was announced to be a verification of the fluctuation relation (FR) by Gallavotti and Cohen. An effective temperature was also identified and proposed to be a useful probe for such nonequilibrium systems. We explain these results in terms of a two-temperature Poisson process. Within this model, supported by independent molecular dynamics simulations, power flux fluctuations do not satisfy the FR and the nature of the effective temperature is clarified. In the pursuit of a hypothetical global quantity fulfilling the FR, this points to the need of considering candidates other than the power flux.