Cluster growth poised on the edge of break-up: Size distributions with small exponent power-laws

In many naturally occurring growth processes, cluster size distributions of power-law form n(s)∝s−τ with small exponents 0<τ<1 are observed. We suggest here that such distributions emerge naturally from cluster growth, where size dependent aggregation is counterbalanced by size dependent break-up. The model used in the study is a simple reaction kinetic model including only monomer–cluster processes. It is shown that under such conditions power-law size distributions with small exponents are obtained. Therefore, the results suggest that the ubiquity of small exponent power-law distributions is related to the growth process, where aggregation driven cluster growth is poised on the edge of cluster break-up.