Eur. Phys. J. B 63, 521-528 (2008)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2008-00260-4

Dynamic behavior of the voter model on fractals: logarithmic-periodic oscillations as a signature of time discrete scale invariance

INIFTA: Instituto de Investigaciones Fisicoquímicas Teóricas y Aplicadas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, UNLP, CCT-La Plata CONICET, Sucursal 4, Casilla de Correo 16, (1900), La Plata, Argentina

Corresponding author: ^a ealbano@inifta.unlp.edu.ar

Received: 17 December 2007
Revised: 10 April 2008
Published online: 10 July 2008

Abstract

The understanding of the dynamic behavior of the voter model, in low-dimensional media, is a very interesting open topic. In fact, due to the absence of the interfacial tension, only the interfacial noise becomes relevant during the coarsening processes, bringing the possibility of studing a new physical process. In this way, it is known that below the upper critical dimension (d < 2) and starting from a disordered configuration, a critical coarsening process takes place, and the density of interfaces, ρ(t), decays as a power-law function of time. Recently published numerical studies performed on low-dimensional fractal substrates (d_F < 2) [Physica A 362, 338 (2006)] show the existence of logarithmic-periodic oscillations superimposed on the standard ρ(t) power-law behavior, but the origin of those oscillations remains unclear. In this work, we provide an explanation of these oscillations in terms of the interplay between the dynamics of the voter model and the discrete scale invariance of the underlying fractal substrate. Our arguments are verified by means of extensive numerical simulations carried out on different fractal substrates.