We introduce a multifractal optimal detrended fluctuation analysis to study the scaling properties of the one-dimensional Wolf-Villain (WV) model for surface growth. This model produces coarsened surface morphologies for long timescales (up to ${10}^9$ monolayers) and its universality class remains an open problem. Our results for the multifractal exponent $\tau \left(q\right)$ reveal an effective local roughness exponent consistent with a transient given by the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) growth regime and Edwards-Wilkinson (EW) universality class for negative and positive $q$ values, respectively. Therefore, although the results corroborate that long-wavelength fluctuations belong to the EW class in the hydrodynamic limit, as conjectured in the recent literature, a bifractal signature of the WV model with an MBE regime at short wavelengths was observed.

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• Fractal analysis
• Growth processes
• Nonequilibrium statistical mechanics