Thursday, May 24, 2012

1205.5066 (Jacob N. Oppenheim et al.)

A Topological Phase Transition in the Scheidegger Model of River
Networks
   [PDF]

Jacob N. Oppenheim, Marcelo O. Magnasco
We investigate the canonical Scheidegger Model of river network morphology for the case of convergent and divergent underlying topography, by embedding it on a cone. We find two distinct phases corresponding to few, long basins and many, short basins, respectively, separated by a singularity in number of basins, indicating a phase transition. Quantifying basin shape through Hack's Law $l\sim a^h$ gives distinct values for the exponent $h$, providing a method of testing our hypotheses. The generality of our model suggests implications for vascular morphology, in particular differing number and shapes of arterial and venous trees.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.5066

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