Controlling self-organized criticality in complex networks

A control scheme to reduce the size of avalanches of the Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld model on complex networks is proposed. Three network types are considered: those proposed by Erdős-Renyi, Goh-Kahng-Kim, and a real network representing the main connections of the electrical power grid of the western United States. The control scheme is based on the idea of triggering avalanches in the highest degree nodes that are near to become critical. We show that this strategy works in the sense that the dissipation of mass occurs most locally avoiding larger avalanches. We also compare this strategy with a random strategy where the nodes are chosen randomly. Although the random control has some ability to reduce the probability of large avalanches, its performance is much worse than the one based on the choice of the highest degree nodes. Finally, we argue that the ability of the proposed control scheme is related to its ability to reduce the concentration of mass on the network.