Homogeneous cooling states are not always good approximations to granular flows

A widespread belief in the study of granular How is the existence of "homogeneous cooling states", i.e., self-similar solutions which would attract all solutions, faster than the equilibrium solution does. In most cases, the existence of these self-similar solutions is an open problem. Here we consider a one-dimensional model, which has been used for some years, and for which simple self-similar solutions do exist. However, we prove that the approximation is quite poor. Our proof makes use of the powerful and simple tools of mass transportation, and exploits the structure of the evolution equation, seen as a nonlinear transport equation.