Universality in Sandpiles, Interface Depinning, and Earthquake Models

Journal Article · Mon Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1996 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.111· OSTI ID:286037

Paczuski, M; Boettcher, S ^[1]

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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 Laboratory
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-76CH00016
• OSTI ID: 286037
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 77; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
66 PHYSICS
DYNAMICS
EARTHQUAKES
ELASTICITY
FLOW MODELS
GRANULAR MATERIALS
INTERFACES
MAPPING
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
SIZE
SIZE EFFECT
VELOCITY