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Science 27 June 1986:
Vol. 232. no. 4758, pp. 1607 - 1612
DOI: 10.1126/science.232.4758.1607
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Articles

Tenuous Structures from Disorderly Growth Processes

T. A. WITTEN 1 and M. E. CATES 2

1 Research associate, at Corporate Research Science Laboratories, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Annandale, NJ 08801.
2 Postdoctoral research fellow at Corporate Research Science Laboratories, Exxon Research and Engineering Company, Annandale, NJ 08801.

Colloidal aggregation and other random growth processes produce structures that behave differently from ordinary bulk matter. Much of this behavior can be described in terms of the invariance of the aggregates under changes of spatial length scale: they appear to be fractals. There are two types of basic mechanisms for producing fractal aggregates. Those in which aggregation proceeds cluster by cluster can be understood qualitatively in terms of a solvable schematic model. The diffusion-limited aggregation or deposition of individual particles to make a large cluster is not as well understood. It is closely related to several irreversible processes in other areas of physics, such as two-fluid displacement in porous materials and the dielectric breakdown of insulators. More generally, disorderly growth mechanisms provide structures having unique properties, many of which can be understood by using simple statistical principles.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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The Shapes of Random Walks.
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