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Nonlinear Physics Seminar: "Path selection in the growth of rivers" | The Racah Institute of Physics

Nonlinear Physics Seminar: "Path selection in the growth of rivers"

Date: 
Wed, 27/01/201612:00-13:30
Location: 
Danciger B building, Seminar room
Lecturer: Dr. Yossi Cohen
Affiliation: Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MIT
Abstract:
River networks exhibit a complex
ramified structure that has inspired
decades of studies. Yet, an
understanding of the propagation of
a single stream remains elusive.
Here we invoke a criterion for path
selection from fracture mechanics
and apply it to the growth of
streams in a diffusion field. We
show that a stream will follow local
symmetry in order to maximize the
water flux and that its trajectory is
defined by the local field in its
vicinity. We also study the growth of
a real network. We use this principle
to reconstruct the history of a
network and to find a growth law
associated with it. The results show
that the deterministic growth of a
single channel based on its local
environment can be used to
characterize the structure of river
networks.