Scaling and noise in slow combustion of paper

We present results of high resolution experiments on kinetic roughening of slow combustion fronts in paper. focusing on short length and time scales. Using three different grades of paper, we find that the combustion fronts s how apparent spatial and temporal multiscaling at short scales. The scaling exponents decrease as a function of the order of the corresponding correla tion functions. The noise affecting the fronts reveals short range temporal and spatial correlations, and non-Gaussian noise amplitudes. Our results i mply that the overall behavior of slow combustion fronts cannot he explaine d by standard theories of kinetic roughening.