Comment on "Parameter-free scaling for nonequilibrium growth processes"

TL;DR

This paper critically examines a proposed parameter-free scaling method for nonequilibrium growth models, demonstrating that it does not reflect the underlying stochastic dynamics or replace the universal Family-Vicsek scaling.

Contribution

The paper provides an explicit form of the scaling for competitive growth models and clarifies its limitations compared to the traditional Family-Vicsek scaling.

Findings

The parameter-free scaling results from a shift-and-scale operator.

This scaling does not encode stochastic dynamics.

It is unrelated to the universal Family-Vicsek function.

Abstract

In the paper [Phys.Rev.E Vol.79, 051605 (2009)] by Chou and Pleimling a claim is made that a parameter-free scaling that gives data collapse for some simulation models would replace universal Family-Vicsek (FV) scaling. Here, by giving the explicit form of this scaling for competitive growth models, it is shown that data collapse in this procedure is obtained by a shift-and-scale operator that gives no information about stochastic dynamics and has no relation with FV function.