On generalized scaling laws with continuously varying exponents

Abstract

Many physical systems share the property of scale invariance. Most of them show ordinary power-law scaling, where quantities can be expressed as a leading power law times a scaling function which depends on scaling-invariant ratios of the parameters. However, some systems do not obey power-law scaling, instead there is numerical evidence for a logarithmic scaling form, in which the scaling function depends on ratios of the logarithms of the parameters. Based on previous ideas by C. Tang we propose that this type of logarithmic scaling can be explained by a concept of local scaling invariance with continuously varying exponents. The functional dependence of the exponents is constrained by a homomorphism, which can be expressed as a set of partial differential equations. Solving these equations we obtain logarithmic scaling as a special case. The other solutions lead to scaling forms where logarithmic and power-law scaling are mixed.