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Abstract:
The fiber bundle model is essentially an array of elements that break when
sufficient load is applied on them. With a local loading mechanism, this can serve as
a model for a one-dimensional interface separating the broken and unbroken parts of
a solid in mode-I fracture. The interface can propagate through the system depending
on the loading rate and disorder present in the failure thresholds of the fibers. In the
presence of a quasi-static drive, the intermittent dynamics of the interface mimic front
propagation in disordered media. Such situations appear in diverse physical systems
such as mode-I crack propagation, domain wall dynamics in magnets, charge density
waves, contact line in wetting etc. We study the effect of the range of interaction,
i.e. the neighborhood of the interface affected following a local perturbation, on the
statistics of the intermittent dynamics of the front. There exists a crossover from
local to global behavior as the range of interaction grows and a continuously varying
‘universality’ in the intermediate range. This means that the interaction range is a
relevant parameter of any resulting physics. This is particularly relevant in view of
the fact that there is a scatter in the experimental observations of the exponents, in
even idealized experiments on fracture fronts, and also a possibility in changing the
interaction range in real samples.
