Strong anisotropy in two-dimensional surfaces with generic scale invariance: nonlinear effects.

We expand a previous study [Phys. Rev. E 86, 051611 (2012)] on the conditions for occurrence of strong anisotropy in the scaling properties of two-dimensional surfaces displaying generic scale invariance. In that study, a natural scaling ansatz was proposed for strongly anisotropic systems, which arises naturally when analyzing data from, e.g., thin-film production experiments. The ansatz was tested in Gaussian (linear) models of surface dynamics and in nonlinear models, like the Hwa-Kardar (HK) equation [Phys. Rev. Lett. 62, 1813 (1989)], which are susceptible of accurate approximations through the former. In contrast, here we analyze nonlinear equations for which such approximations fail. Working within generically scale-invariant situations, and as representative case studies, we formulate and study a generalization of the HK equation for conserved dynamics and reconsider well-known systems, such as the conserved and the nonconserved anisotropic Kardar-Parisi-Zhang equations. Through the combined use of dynamic renormalization group analysis and direct numerical simulations, we conclude that the occurrence of strong anisotropy in two-dimensional surfaces requires dynamics to be conserved. We find that, moreover, strong anisotropy is not generic in parameter space but requires, rather, specific forms of the terms appearing in the equation of motion, whose justification needs detailed information on the dynamical process that is being modeled in each particular case.