Scaling in steady-state aggregation with injection.
A mean-field approach for steady-state aggregation with injection is presented. It is shown that for a wide variety of aggregation processes the resulting steady-size distribution obeys a power law N(m) approximately m(-alpha) with alpha=(3+beta)/2 and beta the degree of homogeneity of the coagulation kernel. The general conditions for this to happen are obtained. Some applications are studied. In particular, it predicts a potential behavior for coagulation in atmospheric aerosols with exponent alpha approximately 2, in agreement with observations. The theoretical results also agree with some animal group-size distributions and with numerical simulations in fractal aggregates.
Camacho
J
J
Departamento de Física (Física Estadística), Edifici C, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Barcelona, Spain.