SCALE-INVARIANCE IN 2-DIMENSIONAL REACTION-LIMITED COLLOIDAL AGGREGATION

Experimental studies of reaction-limited cluster-cluster aggregation in dense colloidal monolayers at liquid surfaces demonstrate that the system evolves to a state lacking any characteristic length scale. In particular, the structure function S(q, t) diverges in the limit t --> infinity and q --> 0, suggestive of self-organized criticality. The self-organization is reflected in the cooperative nature of the divergence.