title: Competition between diffusion and fragmentation: an important evolutionary process of nature.
abstract: We investigate systems of nature where the common physical processes diffusion and fragmentation compete. We derive a rate equation for the size distribution of fragments. The equation leads to a third order differential equation which we solve exactly in terms of Bessel functions. The stationary state is a universal Bessel distribution described by one parameter, which fits perfectly experimental data from two very different systems of nature, namely, the distribution of ice-crystal sizes from the Greenland ice sheet and the length distribution of alpha helices in proteins.
authors.affiliation: Niels Bohr Institute, Blegdamsvej 17, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark. borg@nbi.dk
authors.forename: Jesper
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ferkinghoff-Borg
authors.forename: Mogens H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mathiesen
authors.forename: Poul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Olesen
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sneppen
mesh_terms: D003460:Crystallization; D007053:Ice; D008956:Models, Chemical; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D007053:Ice; D011506:Proteins