2006/08/17 by Alejandro B. Kolton, Alberto Rosso, Ezequiel V. Albano +1 · 45 citations
Computer Science · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Condensed matter physics #Material Dynamics and Properties #Mechanics #Nonlinear Dynamics and Pattern Formation #Physics #Relaxation (psychology) #Statistical physics #String (physics) #Theoretical and Computational Physics #Theoretical physics #Zero (linguistics) #cond-mat.dis-nn #cond-mat.supr-con
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.74.140201
published in Physical Review B 74(14) (American Physical Society) · 4.2 pages, 3 figures
arxiv created 2006/08/17 · openalex publication_date 2006/10/27 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
We study numerically the relaxation of a driven elastic string in a two-dimensional pinning landscape. The relaxation of the string, initially flat, is governed by a growing length L(t) separating the short steady-state equilibrated length scales from the large length scales that keep memory of the initial condition. We find a macroscopic short time regime where relaxation is universal, both above and below the depinning threshold, different from the one expected for standard critical phenomena. Below the threshold, the zero-temperature relaxation towards the first pinned configuration provides an experimentally convenient way to access all the critical exponents of the depinning transition independently.