Universal distribution of threshold forces at the depinning transition

Abstract

We study the distribution of threshold forces at the depinning transition for an elastic system of finite size, driven by an external force in a disordered medium at zero temperature. Using the functional renormalization group (FRG) technique, we compute the distribution of pinning forces in the quasi-static limit. This distribution is universal up to two parameters, the average critical force, and its width. We discuss possible definitions for threshold forces in finite-size samples. We show how our results compare to the distribution of the latter computed recently within a numerical simulation of the so-called critical configuration.

12 pages, 7 figures, revtex4

References in corpus (2)

• Universal Statistics of the Critical Depinning Force of Elastic Systems in Random Media
• Distribution of pseudo-critical temperatures and lack of self-averaging in disordered Poland-Scheraga models with different loop exponents

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Thermal rounding of the depinning transition
• Elastic systems with correlated disorder: Response to tilt and application to surface growth
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• Field theory conjecture for loop-erased random walks