Interface roughening with nonlinear surface tension

Abstract

Using stability arguments, this Brief Report suggests that a term that enhances the surface tension in the presence of large height fluctuations should be included in the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation. A one-loop renormalization group analysis then shows for interface dimensions larger than $\simeq 3.3$ an unstable strong-coupling fixed point that enters the system from infinity. The relevance of these results to the roughening transition is discussed.

4 pages RevTeX, 1 figure