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Avalanche Size Scaling in Sheared Three-Dimensional Amorphous Solid

We have studied the statistics of plastic rearrangement events in a simulated amorphous solid at T=0. Events are characterized by the energy release and the ``slip volume'', the product of plastic strain and system volume. Their distributions for a given system size $L$ appear to be exponential, but a characteristic event size cannot be inferred, because the mean values of these quantities increase as $L^α$ with $α\sim 3/2$. In contrast to results obtained in 2D models, we do not see simply connected avalanches. The exponent suggests a fractal shape of the avalanches, which is also evidenced by the mean fractal dimension and participation ratio.