Geometrical selection in growing needles

• Published in: Journal of statistical mechanics Vol. 2019; no. 7; pp. 73206 - 73226
• Main Authors: Krapivsky, P L, Nazarov, L I, Tamm, M V
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing and SISSA 31.07.2019
• ISSN: 1742-5468; 1742-5468
• DOI: 10.1088/1742-5468/ab270c

We investigate the growth of needles from a flat substrate. We focus on the situation when needles suddenly begin to grow from the seeds randomly distributed on the line. The width of needles is ignored and we additionally assume that (i) the growth rate is the same for all needles; (ii) the direction of the growth of each needle is randomly chosen from the same distribution; (iii) whenever the tip of a needle hits the body of another needle, the former needle freezes, while the latter continues to grow. We elucidate the large time behavior by employing an exact analysis and the Boltzmann equation approach. We also analyze the evolution when seeds are located on a half-line, on a finite interval. Needles growing from the two-dimensional substrate are also examined.