3,218 research outputs found
Formation of Space-Time Structure in a Forest-Fire Model
We present a general stochastic forest-fire model which shows a variety of
different structures depending on the parameter values. The model contains
three possible states per site (tree, burning tree, empty site) and three
parameters (tree growth probability , lightning probability , and
immunity ). We review analytic and computer simulation results for a
quasideterministic state with spiral-shaped fire fronts, for a percolation-like
phase transition and a self-organized critical state. Possible applications to
excitable systems are discussed.Comment: 20 pages REVTEX, 9 figures upon reques
Money and Goldstone modes
Why is ``worthless'' fiat money generally accepted as payment for goods and
services? In equilibrium theory, the value of money is generally not
determined: the number of equations is one less than the number of unknowns, so
only relative prices are determined. In the language of mathematics, the
equations are ``homogeneous of order one''. Using the language of physics, this
represents a continuous ``Goldstone'' symmetry. However, the continuous
symmetry is often broken by the dynamics of the system, thus fixing the value
of the otherwise undetermined variable. In economics, the value of money is a
strategic variable which each agent must determine at each transaction by
estimating the effect of future interactions with other agents. This idea is
illustrated by a simple network model of monopolistic vendors and buyers, with
bounded rationality. We submit that dynamical, spontaneous symmetry breaking is
the fundamental principle for fixing the value of money. Perhaps the continuous
symmetry representing the lack of restoring force is also the fundamental
reason for large fluctuations in stock markets.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Disorder-induced phase transition in a one-dimensional model of rice pile
We propose a one-dimensional rice-pile model which connects the 1D BTW
sandpile model (Phys. Rev. A 38, 364 (1988)) and the Oslo rice-pile model
(Phys. Rev. lett. 77, 107 (1997)) in a continuous manner. We found that for a
sufficiently large system, there is a sharp transition between the trivial
critical behaviour of the 1D BTW model and the self-organized critical (SOC)
behaviour. When there is SOC, the model belongs to a known universality class
with the avalanche exponent .Comment: 10 pages, 7 eps figure
Different hierarchy of avalanches observed in the Bak-Sneppen evolution model
We introduce a new quantity, average fitness, into the Bak-Sneppen evolution
model. Through the new quantity, a different hierarchy of avalanches is
observed. The gap equation, in terms of the average fitness, is presented to
describe the self-organization of the model. It is found that the critical
value of the average fitness can be exactly obtained. Based on the simulations,
two critical exponents, avalanche distribution and avalanche dimension, of the
new avalanches are given.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Unified Scaling Law for Earthquakes
We show that the distribution of waiting times between earthquakes occurring
in California obeys a simple unified scaling law valid from tens of seconds to
tens of years, see Eq. (1) and Fig. 4. The short time clustering, commonly
referred to as aftershocks, is nothing but the short time limit of the general
hierarchical properties of earthquakes. There is no unique operational way of
distinguishing between main shocks and aftershocks. In the unified law, the
Gutenberg-Richter b-value, the exponent -1 of the Omori law for aftershocks,
and the fractal dimension d_f of earthquakes appear as critical indices.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Scaling of impact fragmentation near the critical point
We investigated two-dimensional brittle fragmentation with a flat impact
experimentally, focusing on the low impact energy region near the
fragmentation-critical point. We found that the universality class of
fragmentation transition disagreed with that of percolation. However, the
weighted mean mass of the fragments could be scaled using the pseudo-control
parameter multiplicity. The data for highly fragmented samples included a
cumulative fragment mass distribution that clearly obeyed a power-law. The
exponent of this power-law was 0.5 and it was independent of sample size. The
fragment mass distributions in this regime seemed to collapse into a unified
scaling function using weighted mean fragment mass scaling. We also examined
the behavior of higher order moments of the fragment mass distributions, and
obtained multi-scaling exponents that agreed with those of the simple biased
cascade model.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure
Dynamic Critical approach to Self-Organized Criticality
A dynamic scaling Ansatz for the approach to the Self-Organized Critical
(SOC) regime is proposed and tested by means of extensive simulations applied
to the Bak-Sneppen model (BS), which exhibits robust SOC behavior. Considering
the short-time scaling behavior of the density of sites () below the
critical value, it is shown that i) starting the dynamics with configurations
such that one observes an {\it initial increase} of the
density with exponent ; ii) using initial configurations with
, the density decays with exponent . It is
also shown that he temporal autocorrelation decays with exponent . Using these, dynamically determined, critical exponents and suitable
scaling relationships, all known exponents of the BS model can be obtained,
e.g. the dynamical exponent , the mass dimension exponent , and the exponent of all returns of the activity , in excellent agreement with values already accepted and obtained
within the SOC regime.Comment: Rapid Communication Physical Review E in press (4 pages, 5 figures
A Self-Organized Method for Computing the Epidemic Threshold in Computer Networks
In many cases, tainted information in a computer network can spread in a way
similar to an epidemics in the human world. On the other had, information
processing paths are often redundant, so a single infection occurrence can be
easily "reabsorbed". Randomly checking the information with a central server is
equivalent to lowering the infection probability but with a certain cost (for
instance processing time), so it is important to quickly evaluate the epidemic
threshold for each node. We present a method for getting such information
without resorting to repeated simulations. As for human epidemics, the local
information about the infection level (risk perception) can be an important
factor, and we show that our method can be applied to this case, too. Finally,
when the process to be monitored is more complex and includes "disruptive
interference", one has to use actual simulations, which however can be carried
out "in parallel" for many possible infection probabilities
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