We have studied numerically the dynamics of a driven elastic interface in a
random medium, focusing on the thermal rounding of the depinning transition and
on the behavior in the T=0 pinned phase. Thermal effects are quantitatively
more important than expected from simple dimensional estimates. For sufficient
low temperature the creep velocity at a driving force equal to the T=0
depinning force exhibits a power-law dependence on T, in agreement with
earlier theoretical and numerical predictions for CDW's. We have also examined
the dynamics in the T=0 pinned phase resulting from slowly increasing the
driving force towards threshold. The distribution of avalanche sizes S∥
decays as S∥−1−κ, with κ=0.05±0.05, in agreement with
recent theoretical predictions.Comment: harvmac.tex, 30 pages, including 9 figures, available upon request.
SU-rm-94073