Creep Motion of an Elastic String in a Random Potential

We study the creep motion of an elastic string in a two-dimensional pinning landscape by means of Langevin dynamics simulations. We find that the velocity-force characteristics are well described by the creep formula predicted from phenomenological scaling arguments. We analyze the creep exponent mu and the roughness exponent zeta. Two regimes are identified: when the temperature is larger than the strength of the disorder, we find mu approximately 1/4 and zeta approximately 2/3, in agreement with the quasi-equilibrium-nucleation picture of creep motion; on the contrary, when lowering the temperature enough, the values of mu and zeta increase, showing a strong violation of the latter picture.