Braided Rivers and Superconducting Vortex Avalanches

Abstract

Magnetic vortices intermittently flow through preferred channels when they are forced in or out of a superconductor. We study this behavior using a cellular model, and find that the vortex flow can make braided rivers strikingly similar to aerial photographs of braided fluvial rivers, such as the Brahmaputra. By developing an analysis technique suitable for characterizing a self-affine (multi)fractal, the scaling properties of the braided vortex rivers in the model are compared with those of braided fluvial rivers. We suggest that avalanche dynamics leads to braiding in both cases.

4 pages, 3 figures. To appear in PRL

References in corpus (5)

• Superconducting vortex avalanches, voltage bursts, and vortex plastic flow: Effect of the microscopic pinning landscape on the macroscopic properties
• Fractal Networks, Braiding Channels, and Voltage Noise in Intermittently Flowing Rivers of Quantized Magnetic Flux
• Intermittently Flowing Rivers of Quantized Magnetic Flux
• A Simple Model of Superconducting Vortex Avalanches
• Topological Invariants in Microscopic Transport on Rough Landscapes: Morphology, Hierarchical Structure, and Horton Analysis of Riverlike Networks of Vortices

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• Vortices Clustering: The Origin of the Second Peak in the Magnetisation Loops of High Temperature Superconductors
• Multifractal scaling of flux penetration in the Iron-based Superconductor Ba(Fe${}_{0.93}$Co${}_{0.07}$)${}_2$As${}_2$
• Enhancing Mixing and Diffusion with Plastic Flow