Dynamics of front propagation in the catalytic CO oxidation on Pt(100)

Scaling, cumulant ratios, and height distribution of ballistic deposition in 3+1 and 4+1 dimensions

We investigate the origin of the scaling corrections in ballistic deposition models in high dimensions using the method proposed by Alves et al. [Phys. Rev. E 90, 052405 (2014)PLEEE81539-375510.1103/PhysRevE.90.052405] in d=2+1 dimensions, where the intrinsic width associated with the fluctuations of the height increments during the deposition processes is explicitly taken into account. In the present work, we show that this concept holds for d=3+1 and 4+1 dimensions. We have found that growth and roughness exponents and dimensionless cumulant ratios are in agreement with other models, presenting small finite-time corrections to the scaling, that in principle belong to the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) universality class in both d=3+1 and 4+1. Our results constitute further evidence that the upper critical dimension of the KPZ class, if it exists, is larger than 4.

Origins of scaling corrections in ballistic growth models

We study the ballistic deposition and the grain deposition models on two-dimensional substrates. Using the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) ansatz for height fluctuations, we show that the main contribution to the intrinsic width, which causes strong corrections to the scaling, comes from the fluctuations in the height increments along deposition events. Accounting for this correction in the scaling analysis, we obtain scaling exponents in excellent agreement with the KPZ class. We also propose a method to suppress these corrections, which consists in dividing the surface in bins of size ɛ and using only the maximal height inside each bin to do the statistics. Again, scaling exponents in remarkable agreement with the KPZ class are found. The binning method allows the accurate determination of the height distributions of the ballistic models in both growth and steady-state regimes, providing the universal underlying fluctuations foreseen for KPZ class in 2 + 1 dimensions. Our results provide complete and conclusive evidences that the ballistic model belongs to the KPZ universality class in 2+1 dimensions. Potential applications of the methods developed here, in both numerics and experiments, are discussed.

Finite-size effects in roughness distribution scaling

We study numerically finite-size corrections in scaling relations for roughness distributions of various interface growth models. The most common relation, which considers the average roughness <w(2)> as a scaling factor, is not obeyed in the steady states of a group of ballisticlike models in 2+1 dimensions, even when very large system sizes are considered. On the other hand, good collapse of the same data is obtained with a scaling relation that involves the root mean square fluctuation of the roughness, which can be explained by finite-size effects on second moments of the scaling functions. We also obtain data collapse with an alternative scaling relation that accounts for the effect of the intrinsic width, which is a constant correction term previously proposed for the scaling of <w(2)> . This illustrates how finite-size corrections can be obtained from roughness distributions scaling. However, we discard the usual interpretation that the intrinsic width is a consequence of high surface steps by analyzing data of restricted solid-on-solid models with various maximal height differences between neighboring columns. We also observe that large finite-size corrections in the roughness distributions are usually accompanied by huge corrections in height distributions and average local slopes, as well as in estimates of scaling exponents. The molecular-beam epitaxy model of Das Sarma and Tamborenea in 1+1 dimensions is a case example in which none of the proposed scaling relations work properly, while the other measured quantities do not converge to the expected asymptotic values. Thus although roughness distributions are clearly better than other quantities to determine the universality class of a growing system, it is not the final solution for this task.

Internal fluctuations effects on Fisher waves

We study the diffusion-limited reaction A+A<-->A in various spatial dimensions to observe the effect of internal fluctuations on the interface between stable and unstable phases. We find that, similar to what has been observed in d = 1 dimensions, internal fluctuations modify the mean-field predictions for this process, which is given by Fisher's reaction-diffusion equation. In d>1 the front displays local fluctuations perpendicular to the direction of motion which, with a proper definition of the interface, can be fully described within the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) universality class. This clarifies the apparent discrepancies with KPZ predictions reported recently.