Roughness of a Tilted Anharmonic String at Depinning

Abstract

We consider the discretized model of a driven string with an anharmonic elastic energy, in a two dimensional random potential, as introduced by Rosso and Krauth. Using finite size scaling, we numerically compute the roughness of the string in a uniform applied force at the critical depinning threshold. By considering a string with a net average tilt, we demonstrate that the anharmonic elastic energy crosses the model over to the quenched KPZ universality class, in agreement with recent theoretical predictions.