Numerical study of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equation

TL;DR

This paper presents a numerical study of the KPZ equation in 1+1 and 2+1 dimensions, introducing an instability control method that yields results consistent with known theoretical values and previous lattice model estimates.

Contribution

The authors develop a numerical integration scheme with instability suppression for the KPZ equation, providing more accurate estimates of scaling exponents and distributions in higher dimensions.

Findings

In 1+1D, the method aligns with exact results.

In 2+1D, roughness exponent estimated as 0.37-0.40.

Steady state height distributions show skewness and kurtosis consistent with KPZ universality.

Abstract

We integrate numerically the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation in 1+1 and 2+1 dimensions using an Euler discretization scheme and the replacement of ${(\nabla h)}^2$ by exponentially decreasing functions of that quantity to suppress instabilities. When applied to the equation in 1+1 dimensions, the method of instability control provides values of scaling amplitudes consistent with exactly known results, in contrast to the deviations generated by the original scheme. In 2+1 dimensions, we spanned a range of the model parameters where transients with Edwards-Wilkinson or random growth are not bserved, in box sizes $8\leq L\leq 128$. We obtain roughness exponent $0.37\leq \alpha\leq 0.40$ and steady state height distributions with skewness $S= 0.25\pm 0.01$ and kurtosis $Q= 0.15\pm 0.1$. These estimates are obtained after extrapolations to the large $L$ limit, which is necessary due to significant finite-size effects in the estimates of effective exponents and height distributions. On the other hand, the steady state roughness distributions show weak scaling corrections and evidence of stretched exponentials tails. These results confirm previous estimates from lattice models, showing their reliability as representatives of the KPZ class.