Researchers at the University of Würzburg have demonstrated, for the first time, that chaotic growth in a 2D quantum system follows the Kardar–Parisi–Zhang (KPZ) equation, confirming a 40-year-old physics theory. For decades, physicists have believed that even highly disordered growth — from spreading flames to growing bacteria — follows hidden statistical rules.
Until now, the KPZ model, which describes how rough, uneven surfaces evolve under random conditions, had only been verified in simple, single-dimension systems, as extending it to more realistic 2D environments remained experimentally out of reach due to the extreme speeds and scales involved. The researchers’ findings, published in the Science journal, close a long-standing gap in the field, proving that the theory does indeed extend to 2D systems
