Anomalous scaling of heterogeneous elastic lines: A picture from sample-to-sample fluctuations

We study a discrete model of an heterogeneous elastic line with internal disorder, submitted to thermal fluctuations. The monomers are connected through random springs with independent and identically distributed elastic constants drawn from p(k)∼k^{μ-1} for k→0. When μ>1, the scaling of the standard Edwards-Wilkinson model is recovered. When μ<1, the elastic line exhibits an anomalous scaling of the type observed in many growth models and experiments. Here we derive and use the exact probability distribution of the line shape at equilibrium, as well as the spectral properties of the matrix containing the random couplings, to fully characterize the sample to sample fluctuations. Our results lead to scaling predictions that partially disagree with previous works, but that are corroborated by numerical simulations. We also provide an interpretation of the anomalous scaling in terms of the abrupt jumps in the line's shape that dominate the average value of the observable.