Dimensional crossover in Kardar-Parisi-Zhang growth

Two-dimensional (2D) Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) growth is usually investigated on substrates of lateral sizes L_{x}=L_{y}, so that L_{x} and the correlation length (ξ) are the only relevant lengths determining the scaling behavior. However, in cylindrical geometry, as well as in flat rectangular substrates L_{x}≠L_{y} and, thus, the surfaces can become correlated in a single direction, when ξ∼L_{x}≪L_{y}. From extensive simulations of several KPZ models, we demonstrate that this yields a dimensional crossover in their dynamics, with the roughness scaling as W∼t^{β_{2D}} for t≪t_{c} and W∼t^{β_{1D}} for t≫t_{c}, where t_{c}∼L_{x}^{1/z_{2D}}. The height distributions (HDs) also cross over from the 2D flat (cylindrical) HD to the asymptotic Tracy-Widom Gaussian orthogonal ensemble (Gaussian unitary ensemble) distribution. Moreover, 2D to one-dimensional (1D) crossovers are found also in the asymptotic growth velocity and in the steady-state regime of flat systems, where a family of universal HDs exists, interpolating between the 2D and 1D ones as L_{y}/L_{x} increases. Importantly, the crossover scalings are fully determined and indicate a possible way to solve 2D KPZ models.