Earthquake-like patterns of acoustic emission in crumpled plastic sheets

TL;DR

This study reveals that crumpled plastic sheets emit acoustic signals with statistical properties similar to earthquakes, suggesting universal behaviors in complex systems and offering insights into earthquake mechanisms.

Contribution

It demonstrates a novel analogy between acoustic emissions from crumpled sheets and earthquakes, highlighting shared statistical features and supporting universality in complex systems.

Findings

Shared statistical distributions of energy and intervals

Correlations in energy increment magnitudes and signs

Similarity in intermittency patterns between systems

Abstract

We report remarkable similarities in the output signal of two distinct out-of- equilibrium physical systems - earthquakes and the intermittent acoustic noise emitted by crum- pled plastic sheets - Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene (BOPP) films. We show that both signals share several statistical properties including the distribution of energy, distribution of energy in- crements for distinct time scales, distribution of return intervals and correlations in the magnitude and sign of energy increments. This analogy is consistent with the concept of universality in com- plex systems and could provide some insight on the mechanisms behind the complex behavior of earthquakes.