1999/01/31 by Kevin E. Bassler, Maya Paczuski, George Reiter +1 · 2 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Physics and Astronomy · #Complex Systems and Time Series Analysis #Condensed matter physics #Flow (mathematics) #Fluvial #Fractal #Geology #Geometry #Geomorphology #Kármán vortex street #Mechanics #Physics #Physics of Superconductivity and Magnetism #Scaling #Superconductivity #Theoretical and Computational Physics #Turbulence #Vortex #adap-org #cond-mat.stat-mech #cond-mat.supr-con #nlin.AO #nlin.PS #patt-sol
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.83.3956
4 pages, 3 figures. To appear in PRL
arxiv created 1999/09/07 · openalex publication_date 1999/11/08 · arxiv updated 2016/08/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
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.