English

Watersheds are Schramm-Loewner Evolution curves

Statistical Mechanics 2012-12-04 v2

Abstract

We show that in the continuum limit watersheds dividing drainage basins are Schramm-Loewner Evolution (SLE) curves, being described by one single parameter κ\kappa. Several numerical evaluations are applied to ascertain this. All calculations are consistent with SLEκ_\kappa, with κ=1.734±0.005\kappa=1.734\pm0.005, being the only known physical example of an SLE with κ<2\kappa<2. This lies outside the well-known duality conjecture, bringing up new questions regarding the existence and reversibility of dual models. Furthermore it constitutes a strong indication for conformal invariance in random landscapes and suggests that watersheds likely correspond to a logarithmic Conformal Field Theory (CFT) with central charge c7/2c\approx-7/2.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1206.3159,
  title  = {Watersheds are Schramm-Loewner Evolution curves},
  author = {E. Daryaei and N. A. M. Araujo and K. J. Schrenk and S. Rouhani and H. J. Herrmann},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1206.3159},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

5 pages and 4 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-21T21:19:22.139Z