Scaling theory of thermal rounding phenomena in depinning and related transitions

Abstract

We present a scaling theory for the effect of thermal fluctuations on the characteristics of the depinning transition, and also in the closely related directed percolation model. Thermal effects act as a sort of external field that produces a rounding of the sharp transition occurring at zero temperature. The theory allows to predict the value of the thermal rounding exponent that quantifies the rounding effect. It also gives insight into the spatial and temporal correlations between thermally activated events, which are highly non-trivial.