Self-organization of the critical state in granular superconductors

The critical state in granular superconductors is studied using two mathematical models: systems of differential equations for the gauge-invariant phase difference and a simplified model that is described by a system of coupled mappings and in many cases is equivalent to the standard models used for studying self-organized criticality. It is shown that the critical state of granular superconductors is self-organized in all cases studied. In addition, it is shown that the models employed are essentially equivalent, i.e., they demonstrate not only the same critical behavior, but they also lead to the same noncritical phenomena. The first demonstration of the existence of self-organized criticality in a system of nonlinear differential equations and its equivalence to self-organized criticality in standard models is given in this paper.     

Self-organized criticality in the olami-feder-christensen model

A system is in a self-organized critical state if the distribution of some measured events obeys a power law. The finite-size scaling of this distribution with the lattice size is usually enough to assume that the system displays self-organized criticality. This approach, however, can be misleading. In this paper we analyze the behavior of the branching rate sigma of the events to establish whether a system is in a critical state. We apply this method to the Olami-Feder-Christensen model to obtain evidence that, in contrast to previous results, the model is critical in the conservative regime only.     

Numerical study of the three-state Ashkin-Teller model with competing dynamics

An open ferromagnetic Ashkin-Teller model with spin variables 0, ±1 is studied by standard Monte Carlo simulations on a square lattice in the presence of competing Glauber and Kawasaki dynamics. The Kawasaki dynamics simulates spin-exchange processes that continuously flow energy into the system from an external source. Our calculations reveal the presence, in the model, of tricritical points where first order and second order transition lines meet. Beyond that, several self-organized phases are detected when Kawasaki dynamics become dominant. Phase diagrams that comprise phase boundaries and stationary states have been determined in the model parameters’ space. In the case where spin-phonon interactions are incorporated in the model Hamiltonian, numerical results indicate that the paramagnetic phase is stabilized and almost all of the self-organized phases are destroyed.     

A sharp transition between a trivial 1D BTW model and self-organized critical rice-pile model

A one-dimensional model of a rice-pile is numerically studied for different driving mechanisms. We found that for a sufficiently large system, there is a sharp transition between the trivial behaviour of a 1D BTW model and self-organized critical (SOC) behaviour. Depending on the driving mechanism, the self-organized critical rice-pile model belongs to two different universality classes. Received 18 December 1998     

Reaction-diffusion system with self-organized critical behavior

We describe the construction of a conserved reaction-diffusion system that exhibits self-organized critical (avalanche-like) behavior under the action of a slow addition of particles. The model provides an illustration of the general mechanism to generate self-organized criticality in conserving systems. Extensive simulations in d = 2 and 3 reveal critical exponents compatible with the universality class of the stochastic Manna sandpile model. Received 16 November 2000     

Complex scaling behavior of nonconserved self-organized critical systems

The Olami-Feder-Christensen earthquake model is often considered the prototype dissipative self-organized critical model. It is shown that the size distribution of events in this model results from a complex interplay of several different phenomena, including limited floating-point precision. Parallels between the dynamics of synchronized regions and those of a system with periodic boundary conditions are pointed out, and the asymptotic avalanche size distribution is conjectured to be dominated by avalanches of size 1, with the weight of larger avalanches converging towards zero as the system size increases.     

Fluctuations in mean-field self-organized criticality

We present two models that exhibit self-organized criticality at the mean-field level. These can be variously interpreted in epidemiological or chemical reaction terms. By studying the master equation for these models we find, however, that only in one of them does the self-organized critical behavior survive in the face of fluctuations. For this model we show the spectrum of the evolution operator to have spectral collapse, i.e., instead of a gap, as would occur in noncritical behavior, there are eigenvalues that approach zero as an inverse power of system size.     

Effects of Interactive Function Forms and Refractoryperiod in a Self-Organized Critical Model Based on Neural Networks

Based on the standard self-organizing map neural network model and an integrate-and-tire mechanism, we investigate the effect of the nonlinear interactive function on the self-organized criticality in our model. Based on these we also investigate the effect of the refractoryperiod on the self-organized criticality of the system.     

Effects of Interactive Function Forms and Refractoryperiod in a Self-Organized Critical Model Based on Neural Networks

Based on the standard self-organizing map neural network model and an integrate-and-fire mechanism, we investigate the effect of the nonlinear interactive function on the self-organized criticality in our model. Based on the sewe also investigate the effect of the refractoryperiod on the self-organized criticality of the system.     

Self-organized criticality in the El Niño Southern oscillation

The Fourier analysis has been applied to observational sea surface temperature (SST) data from the Southern Pacific. The spectral response of the daily temperature fluctuations indicates that the so-called El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) belongs to the class of dynamical phenomena which are in a self-organized critical state. This has implications on the predictability of the significant events in the ocean-atmosphere interaction process. A toy model is used to point out the similarities of this system with other large scale phenomena, as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, which are considered to be consistent with the hypothesis of self-organized criticality. The qualitative agreement between observational data and results of numerical simulations demonstrates the validity extent of the theoretical approach.     

Criticality in Two-Variable Earthquake Model on a Random Graph

A two-variable earthquake model on a quenched random graph is established here. It can be seen as a generalization of the OFC models. We numerically study the critical behavior of the model when the system is nonconservative: the result indicates that the model exhibits self-organized criticality deep within the nonconservative regime. The probability distribution for avalanche size obeys finite size scaling. We compare our model with the model introduced by Stefano Lise and Maya Paczuski [Phys. Rev. Lett. 88 (2002) 228301], it is proved that they are not in the same universality class.     

Self-organized partially synchronous dynamics in populations of nonlinearly coupled oscillators

We analyze a minimal model of a population of identical oscillators with a nonlinear coupling—a generalization of the popular Kuramoto model. In addition to well-known for the Kuramoto model regimes of full synchrony, full asynchrony, and integrable neutral quasiperiodic states, ensembles of nonlinearly coupled oscillators demonstrate two novel nontrivial types of partially synchronized dynamics: self-organized bunch states and self-organized quasiperiodic dynamics. The analysis based on the Watanabe-Strogatz ansatz allows us to describe the self-organized bunch states in any finite ensemble as a set of equilibria, and the self-organized quasiperiodicity as a two-frequency quasiperiodic regime. An analytic solution in the thermodynamic limit of infinitely many oscillators is also discussed.     

Self-organized branching process for a one-dimensional rice-pile model

A self-organized branching process is introduced to describe one-dimensional rice-pile model with stochastic topplings. Although the branching processes are generally expected to describe well high-dimensional systems, our modification highlights some of the peculiarities present in one dimension. We find analytically that the crossover behavior from the trivial one-dimensional BTW behaviour to self-organized criticality is characterised by a power-law distribution of avalanches. The finite-size effects, which are crucial to the crossover, are calculated. Received 21 June 2001 and Received in final form 14 November 2001     

Energy avalanches in a rice-pile model

We investigate a one-dimensional rice-pile model. We show that the distribution of dissipated potential energy decays as a power law with an exponent α = 1.53. The system thus provides a one-dimensional example of self-organized criticality. Different driving conditions are examined in order to allow for comparisons with experiments.     

Onset of self-organized critical state in a one-dimensional multijunction SQUID as a result of random arrangement of junctions

The critical state of a one-dimensional multijunction SQUID with randomly distributed junctions exposed to a slowly varying magnetic field is studied. It is shown that a small scatter of interjunction distances is sufficient for the critical state of the system to become self-organized. A simplified and basically new model is proposed for studying the self-organization in a system where this phenomenon occurs in a fully deterministic situation.     

Self-organized criticality in a nutshell

In order to gain insight into the nature of self-organized criticality (SOC), we present a minimal model exhibiting this phenomenon. In this analytically solvable model, the state of the system is fully described by a single-integer variable. The system organizes in its critical state without external tuning. We derive analytically the probability distribution of durations of disturbances propagating through the system. As required by SOC, this distribution is scale invariant and follows a power law over several orders of magnitude. Our solution also reproduces the exponential tail of the distribution due to finite size effects. Moreover, we show that large avalanches are suppressed when stabilizing the system in its critical state. Interestingly, avalanches are affected in a similar way when driving the system away from the critical state. With this model, we have reduced SOC dynamics to a leveling process as described by Ehrenfest's famous flea model.     

Stretched exponential distribution of recurrent time of wars in China

As a killing machine and a decisive factor of history, wars play an important role in social system. In this paper, we present an empirical exploration of the distribution of recurrent time of wars in ancient China and find that it obeys a stretched exponential form. The pattern we found implies that there are undetected mechanisms that underlie the dynamics of wars. In order to explain the origin of this form, a model mainly based on the correlation between two consecutive wars is constructed, which is somewhat similar to the Bak-Sneppen model. The simulation results of the model are in agreement with the empirical statistics and suggest that the dynamics of wars could relate with self-organized criticality.     

Self-organized criticality in a block lattice model of the brittle crust

An earthquake model is introduced, in which the brittle crust is treated as a two-dimensional system of many blocks divided by faults, and the mechanical behavior of the faults is described by the Burridge-Knopoff stick-slip model. The coherent system naturally evolves into a self-organized critical state. Some universal scaling laws of seismicity, such as the Gutenberg-Richter law with the b value in agreement with the observational result and the fractal feature of fault patterns, are reproduced. Some ambiguity in simple cellular automata models is also solved.     

Self-organized Criticality in an Earthquake Model on Random Network

A simplified Olami-Feder-Christensen model on a random network has been studied. We propose a new toppling rule — when there is an unstable site toppling, the energy of the site is redistributed to its nearest neighbors randomly not averagely. The simulation results indicate that the model displays self-organized criticality when the system is conservative, and the avalanche size probability distribution of the system obeys finite size scaling. When the system is nonconservative, the model does not display scaling behavior. Simulation results of our model with different nearest neighbors q is also compared, which indicates that the spatial topology does not alter the critical behavior of the system.     

Scaling relations in the spherically symmetric Landau—Ginzburg model and a possible connection with self-organized criticality

Solutions of the spherically symmetric Landau—Ginzburg model are analyzed numerically and analytically in the subcritical temperature region. Special attention is paid to their scaling behavior both in time and space domains. We demonstrate through a number of scaling relations that these solutions can be viewed as manifesting self-organized criticality in the system, with a power spectrum consistent with 1/f-noise characteristics.