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Phys. Rev. Lett. 80, 4349–4352 (1998)

Stochastic Equation for the Erosion of Inclined Topography

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Romualdo Pastor-Satorras and Daniel H. Rothman
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139

Received 2 December 1997; published in the issue dated 11 May 1998

We present a stochastic equation to model the erosion of topography with fixed inclination. The inclination causes the erosion to be anisotropic. A zero-order consequence of the anisotropy is the dependence of the prefactor of the surface height-height correlations on direction. The lowest higher-order contribution from the anisotropy is studied by applying the dynamic renormalization group. In this case, assuming an inhomogenous distribution of soil material, we find a one-loop estimate of the roughness exponents. The predicted exponents are in good agreement with new measurements made from seafloor topography.

© 1998 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.4349
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.80.4349
PACS:
92.40.Gc, 05.60.+w, 64.60.Ak, 64.60.Ht