Self Organized Criticality

Overview

You may have heard about experiments on the sand pile, or otherwise seen Per Bak's work on so-called self-organized criticality (SOC). But what is it?

During a dinner conversation the other night, it seemed that my lit-review knowledge of the concepts might be of help to some people. Things that could be covered:

• what does it mean for a system to be critical?
• why do systems not usual stay here?
• so what is SOC?
• when do I know when I've got SOC?
  • fractals and power spectra
  • separation of time-scales
• how does SOC relate to Complex Systems? Is it the answer to a unified theory of Complex Systems?
• some comments/criticisms of SOC

Interested? Sign below

Thanks, Simon (Room 21 Calliope)