Physics Commons^™

Parallel Diffusion-Limited Aggregation, H Kaufman, A Vespignani, B B. Mandelbrot, L Woog

Alessandro Vespignani

We present methods for simulating very large diffusion-limited aggregation (DLA) clusters using parallel processing (PDLA). With our techniques, we have been able to simulate clusters of up to 130 million particles. The time required for generating a 100 million particle PDLA is approximately 13 h. The fractal behavior of these ''parallel'' clusters changes from a multiparticle aggregation dynamics to the usual DLA dynamics. The transition is described by simple scaling assumptions that define a characteristic cluster size separating the two dynamical regimes. We also use DLA clusters as seeds for parallel processing. In this case, the transient regime disappears and …