Growing interfaces uncover universal fluctuations behind scale invariance.

ABSTRACT: Stochastic motion of a point - known as Brownian motion - has many successful applications in science, thanks to its scale invariance and consequent universal features such as Gaussian fluctuations. In contrast, the stochastic motion of a line, though it is also scale-invariant and arises in nature as various types of interface growth, is far less understood. The two major missing ingredients are: an experiment that allows a quantitative comparison with theory and an analytic solution of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation, a prototypical equation for describing growing interfaces. Here we solve both problems, showing unprecedented universality beyond the scaling laws. We investigate growing interfaces of liquid-crystal turbulence and find not only universal scaling, but universal distr

SUBMITTER: Takeuchi KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3216521 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature