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Branch distribution in diffusion-limited aggregation: a maximum entropy approach

✍ Scribed by R. Pastor-Satorras; J. Wagensberg


Publisher
Elsevier Science
Year
1996
Tongue
English
Weight
794 KB
Volume
224
Category
Article
ISSN
0378-4371

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✦ Synopsis


A new approach to the branching structure of diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) clusters is proposed, in which the stress is laid not on the (traditionally used) order of the branches, but on their mass. The branch distribution n (s, M) (to be defined) of DLA is computed and its properties are compared with those found in self-similar deterministic fractal sets. A power-law behavior is found in both cases. DLA also shows a striking crossover, which is independent of the cluster size. The Maximum Entropy formalism, a well-known method in statistical physics, is applied in order to derive the functional form of n(s, M). The fit is achieved by means of a constraint concerning the information in the ensemble of all DLA clusters. We believe this constraint is a preliminar hint towards a new conceptual framework for the study of fractal growth phenomena.