We investigate the liquid-solid transition of two-dimensional hard spheres
in the presence of gravity. We determine the transition temperature and the
fraction of particles in the solid regime as a function of temperature via
event-driven molecular-dynamics simulations and compare them with the theo
retical predictions. We then examine the configurational statistics of a vi
brating bed from the viewpoint of the Liquid-solid transition by explicitly
determining the transition temperature and the effective temperature T of
the bed, and present a relation between T and the vibration strength.