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Macroscopic fluctuation theory and first-passage properties of surface diffusion

Baruch Meerson and Arkady Vilenkin
Phys. Rev. E 93, 020102(R) – Published 8 February 2016; Erratum Phys. Rev. E 93, 059901 (2016)

Abstract

We investigate nonequilibrium fluctuations of a solid surface governed by the stochastic Mullins-Herring equation with conserved noise. This equation describes surface diffusion of adatoms accompanied by their exchange between the surface and the bulk of the solid, when desorption of adatoms is negligible. Previous works dealt with dynamic scaling behavior of the fluctuating interface. Here we determine the probability that the interface first reaches a large given height at a specified time. We also find the optimal time history of the interface conditional on this nonequilibrium fluctuation. We obtain these results by developing a macroscopic fluctuation theory of surface diffusion.

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  • Received 2 July 2015
  • Revised 16 November 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.93.020102

©2016 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

  1. Research Areas
  1. Physical Systems
Statistical Physics & Thermodynamics

Erratum

Authors & Affiliations

Baruch Meerson* and Arkady Vilenkin

  • Racah Institute of Physics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel

  • *meerson@mail.huji.ac.il
  • vilenkin@mail.huji.ac.il

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Issue

Vol. 93, Iss. 2 — February 2016

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