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Title: Universality in Sandpiles, Interface Depinning, and Earthquake Models

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
;  [1]
  1. Department of Physics, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973 (United States)

Recent numerical results for a model describing dispersive transport in ricepiles are explained by mapping the model to the depinning transition of an elastic interface that is dragged at one end through a random medium. The average velocity of transport vanishes with system size {ital L} as {l_angle}{ital v}{r_angle}{approximately}{ital L}{sup 2{minus}{ital D}}{approximately}{ital L}{sup {minus}0.23}, and the avalanche size distribution exponent {tau}=2{minus}1/{ital D}{approx_equal}1.55, where {ital D}{approx_equal}2.23 from interface depinning. We conjecture that the purely deterministic Burridge-Knopoff {open_quote}{open_quote}train{close_quote}{close_quote} model for earthquakes is in the same universality class. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-76CH00016
OSTI ID:
286037
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 77, Issue 1; Other Information: PBD: Jul 1996
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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