Dielectric breakdown patterns via Diffusion-Limited Aggregation
Named after German physicist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1777), these branching patterns form when electrical discharge travels through or across an insulating material. The pattern grows preferentially toward regions of high electric field gradient, creating fractal structures with dimension ~1.7-2.0. This simulation uses a Diffusion-Limited Aggregation (DLA) model with a bias parameter η that controls how strongly growth favors high-gradient regions. Higher η values produce more dendritic, tree-like structures resembling lightning.