Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Visualization of High Speed Liquid Jet Impaction on a Moving Surface
Published on: April 17, 2015
Kinetic description of avalanching systems
M Gedalin1, M Balikhin, D Coca
1Ben-Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel.
Abstract:
Avalanching systems are treated analytically using the renormalization group (in the self-organized-criticality regime) or mean-field approximation, respectively. The latter describes the state in terms of the mean number of active and passive sites, without addressing the inhomogeneity in their distribution. This paper goes one step further by proposing a kinetic description of avalanching systems making use of the distribution function for clusters of active sites. We illustrate an application of the kinetic formalism to a model proposed for the description of the avalanching processes in the reconnecting current sheet of the Earth's magnetosphere. A description of avalanching systems is proposed that makes use of the distribution function for clusters of active sites. A general kinetic equation is derived that describes the temporal evolution of the distribution function, in terms of growth and shrinking probabilities. The distribution of clusters is derived for the stationary regime, for a quite general class of avalanching systems or arbitrary dimensionality. The approach, including the probability calculation, is illustrated by an application of the kinetic description to the recently proposed burning model.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
Kinematic Equations - I
Free-falling Bodies: Example
The...
Energy Diagrams - I
Take the example of a skater on a parabolic ramp. The potential energy at different points along the ramp will be proportional to the height of the ramp, which varies quadratically with the horizontal position on the ramp. As the skater moves down the ramp from the highest position,...
Energy Diagrams - II
The point in the energy diagram at which the system’s potential energy is the lowest is known as the local minima. The system tends to stay in this position indefinitely unless acted upon by a net force. The slope of the potential energy diagram at the local minima is zero, indicating that zero net force is acting on the system. The slope...
Elastic Collisions: Introduction
Design Example: Designing Water Slide
Bernoulli's principle determines the water's velocity along the slide.

