Anisotropic finite-size scaling of an elastic string at the depinning threshold in a random-periodic medium

Abstract

We numerically study the geometry of a driven elastic string at its sample-dependent depinning threshold in random-periodic media. We find that the anisotropic finite-size scaling of the average square width $\overline{w^2}$ and of its associated probability distribution are both controlled by the ratio $k=M/L^{{\zeta }_{\mathrm{dep}}}$, where ${\zeta }_{\mathrm{dep}}$ is the random-manifold depinning roughness exponent, $L$ is the longitudinal size of the string and $M$ the transverse periodicity of the random medium. The rescaled average square width $\overline{w^2}/L^{2{\zeta }_{\mathrm{dep}}}$ displays a non-trivial single minimum for a finite value of $k$. We show that the initial decrease for small $k$ reflects the crossover at $k\sim 1$ from the random-periodic to the random-manifold roughness. The increase for very large $k$ implies that the increasingly rare critical configurations, accompanying the crossover to Gumbel critical-force statistics, display anomalous roughness properties: a transverse-periodicity scaling in spite that $\overline{w^2}\ll M$, and subleading corrections to the standard random-manifold longitudinal-size scaling. Our results are relevant to understanding the dimensional crossover from interface to particle depinning.

11 pages, 7 figures, Commentary from the reviewer available in Papers in Physics

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Cited by in corpus (2)

• A numerical study of the statistics of roughness parameters for fluctuating interfaces
• Theory and Experiments for Disordered Elastic Manifolds, Depinning, Avalanches, and Sandpiles