We report an experimental investigation of the transition from a hexagonallyordered solid phase to a disordered liquid in a monolayer of vibrated spheres.The transition occurs as the intensity of the vibration amplitude is increased.Measurements of the density of dislocations and the positional andorientational correlation functions show evidence for a dislocation-mediatedcontinuous transition from a solid phase with long-range order to a liquid withonly short-range order. The results show a strong similarity to simulations ofmelting of hard disks in equilibrium, despite the fact that the granularmonolayer is far from equilibrium due to the effects of interparticledissipation and the vibrational forcing.
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