1 research outputs found
Braided Rivers and Superconducting Vortex Avalanches
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.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. To appear in PR