eprintid: 1172
rev_number: 11
eprint_status: archive
userid: 6
dir: disk0/00/00/11/72
datestamp: 2012-02-24 12:56:03
lastmod: 2013-11-20 13:19:15
status_changed: 2012-02-24 12:56:03
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Marani, Marco
creators_name: Banavar, Jayanth R
creators_name: Caldarelli, Guido
creators_name: Maritan, Amos
creators_name: Rinaldo, Andrea
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: guido.caldarelli@imtlucca.it
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
title: Stationary self-organized fractal structures in an open, dissipative electrical system
ispublished: pub
subjects: QC
divisions: EIC
full_text_status: none
keywords: PACS: 05.65.+b Self-organized systems; 41.20.Cv  Electrostatics; Poisson and Laplace equations, boundary-value problems; 02.60.Lj Ordinary and partial differential equations; boundary value problems
abstract: We study the stationary state of a Poisson problem for a system of N perfectly conducting metal balls driven by electric forces to move within a medium of very low electrical conductivity onto which charges are sprayed from outside. When grounded at a confining boundary, the system of metal balls is experimentally known to self-organize into stable fractal aggregates. We simulate the dynamical conditions leading to the formation of such aggregated patterns and analyse the fractal properties. From our results and those obtained for steady-state systems that obey minimum total energy dissipation (and potential energy of the system as a whole), we suggest a possible dynamical rule for the emergence of scale-free structures in nature. 
date: 1999-03
date_type: published
publication: Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General
volume: 31
number: 18
publisher: IOPscience
pagerange: L337-L343
id_number: 10.1088/0305-4470/31/18/002
refereed: TRUE
issn: 0305-4470
official_url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0305-4470/31/18/002
related_url_url: http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/9804021
citation:   Marani, Marco and Banavar, Jayanth R and Caldarelli, Guido and Maritan, Amos and Rinaldo, Andrea  Stationary self-organized fractal structures in an open, dissipative electrical system.  Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General, 31 (18).  L337-L343.  ISSN 0305-4470      (1999)