Universal fluctuations in KPZ growth on one-dimensional flat substrates

TL;DR

This study numerically confirms that height distributions in 1D KPZ flat substrate growth universally follow the GOE distribution, with convergence behaviors and surface descriptions aligning with theoretical predictions.

Contribution

It provides new numerical evidence that the GOE distribution universally describes height fluctuations in KPZ growth on flat substrates.

Findings

Height distributions fit GOE distribution well.

Cumulants converge to GOE with specific decay rates.

Surfaces are described by the Airy$_{1}$ process.

Abstract

We present a numerical study of the evolution of height distributions (HDs) obtained in interface growth models belonging to the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) universality class. The growth is done on an initially flat substrate. The HDs obtained for all investigated models are very well fitted by the theoretically predicted Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble (GOE) distribution. The first cumulant has a shift that vanishes as $t^{-1/3}$, while the cumulants of order $2\le n\le 4$ converge to GOE as $t^{-2/3}$ or faster, behaviors previously observed in other KPZ systems. These results yield a new evidence for the universality of the GOE distribution in KPZ growth on flat substrates. Finally, we further show that the surfaces are described by the Airy$_{1}$ process.