Avalanche frontiers in the dissipative Abelian sandpile model and off-critical Schramm-Loewner evolution

Sandpiles subjected to sinusoidal drive

This paper considers a sandpile model subjected to a sinusoidal external drive with the period T. We develop a theoretical model for the Green's function in a large T limit, which predicts that the avalanches are anisotropic and elongated in the oscillation direction. We track the problem numerically and show that the system additionally shows a regime where the avalanches are elongated in the perpendicular direction with respect to the oscillations. We find a crossover between these two regimes. The power spectrum of avalanche size and the grains wasted from the parallel and perpendicular directions are studied. These functions show power-law behavior in terms of the frequency with exponents, which run with T.

Anomalous Self-Organization in Active Piles

Inspired by recent observations on active self-organized critical (SOC) systems, we designed an active pile (or ant pile) model with two ingredients: beyond-threshold toppling and under-threshold active motions. By including the latter component, we were able to replace the typical power-law distribution for geometric observables with a stretched exponential fat-tailed distribution, where the exponent and decay rate are dependent on the activity's strength (ζ). This observation helped us to uncover a hidden connection between active SOC systems and α-stable Levy systems. We demonstrate that one can partially sweep α-stable Levy distributions by changing ζ. The system undergoes a crossover towards Bak-Tang-Weisenfeld (BTW) sandpiles with a power-law behavior (SOC fixed point) below a crossover point ζ<ζ*≈0.1.

A self-organized critical model and multifractal analysis for earthquakes in Central Alborz, Iran

This paper is devoted to a phenomenological study of the earthquakes in central Alborz, Iran. Using three observational quantities, namely the weight function, the quality factor, and the velocity model in this region, we develop a modified dissipative sandpile model which captures the main features of the system, especially the average activity field over the region of study. The model is based on external stimuli, the location of which is chosen (I) randomly, (II) on the faults, (III) on the low active points, (IV) on the moderately active points, and (V) on the highly active points in the region. We uncover some universal behaviors depending slightly on the method of external stimuli. A multi-fractal detrended fluctuation analysis is exploited to extract the spectrum of the Hurst exponent of the time series obtained by each of these schemes. Although the average Hurst exponent depends slightly on the method of stimuli, we numerically show that in all cases it is lower than 0.5, reflecting the anti-correlated nature of the system. The lowest average Hurst exponent is found to be associated with the case (V), in such a way that the more active the stimulated sites are, the lower the average Hurst exponent is obtained, i.e. the large earthquakes are more anticorrelated. Moreover, we find that the activity field achieved in this study provide information about the depth and topography of the basement, and also the area that can potentially be the location of the future large events. We successfully determine a high activity zone on the Mosha Fault, where the mainshock occurred on May 7th, 2020 (M\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$_W$$\end{document}W 4.9).

Self-similar but not conformally invariant traces obtained by modified Loewner forces

The two-dimensional Loewner exploration process is generalized to the case where the random force is self-similar with positively correlated increments. We model this random force by a fractional Brownian motion with Hurst exponent H≥1/2≡H_{BM}, where H_{BM} stands for the one-dimensional Brownian motion. By manipulating the deterministic force, we design a scale-invariant equation describing self-similar traces which lack conformal invariance. The model is investigated in terms of the "input diffusivity parameter" κ, which coincides with the one of the ordinary Schramm-Loewner evolution (SLE) at H=H_{BM}. In our numerical investigation, we focus on the scaling properties of the traces generated for κ=2,3, κ=4, and κ=6,8 as the representatives, respectively, of the dilute phase, the transition point, and the dense phase of the ordinary SLE. The resulting traces are shown to be scale invariant. Using two equivalent schemes, we extract the fractal dimension, D_{f}(H), of the traces which decrease monotonically with increasing H, reaching D_{f}=1 at H=1 for all κ values. The left passage probability (LPP) test demonstrates that, for H values not far from the uncorrelated case (small ε_{H}≡H-H_{BM}/H_{BM}), the prediction of the ordinary SLE is applicable with an effective diffusivity parameter κ_{eff}. Not surprisingly, the κ_{eff}'s do not fulfill the prediction of SLE for the relation between D_{f}(H) and the diffusivity parameter.

Self-organized criticality in cumulus clouds

The shape of clouds has proven to be essential for classifying them. Our analysis of images from fair weather cumulus clouds reveals that, in addition to turbulence, they are driven by self-organized criticality. Our observations yield exponents that support the fact the clouds, when projected to two dimensions, exhibit conformal symmetry compatible with c=-2 conformal field theory. By using a combination of the Navier-Stokes equation, diffusion equations, and a coupled map lattice, we successfully simulated cloud formation, and obtained the same exponents.

Statistical investigation of avalanches of three-dimensional small-world networks and their boundary and bulk cross-sections

In many situations we are interested in the propagation of energy in some portions of a three-dimensional system with dilute long-range links. In this paper, a sandpile model is defined on the three-dimensional small-world network with real dissipative boundaries and the energy propagation is studied in three dimensions as well as the two-dimensional cross-sections. Two types of cross-sections are defined in the system, one in the bulk and another in the system boundary. The motivation of this is to make clear how the statistics of the avalanches in the bulk cross-section tend to the statistics of the dissipative avalanches, defined in the boundaries as the concentration of long-range links (α) increases. This trend is numerically shown to be a power law in a manner described in the paper. Two regimes of α are considered in this work. For sufficiently small αs the dominant behavior of the system is just like that of the regular BTW, whereas for the intermediate values the behavior is nontrivial with some exponents that are reported in the paper. It is shown that the spatial extent up to which the statistics is similar to the regular BTW model scales with α just like the dissipative BTW model with the dissipation factor (mass in the corresponding ghost model) m^{2}∼α for the three-dimensional system as well as its two-dimensional cross-sections.

Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld model in the upper critical dimension: Induced criticality in lower-dimensional subsystems

We present extensive numerical simulations of Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld (BTW) sandpile model on the hypercubic lattice in the upper critical dimension D_{u}=4. After re-extracting the critical exponents of avalanches, we concentrate on the three- and two-dimensional (2D) cross sections seeking for the induced criticality which are reflected in the geometrical and local exponents. Various features of finite-size scaling (FSS) theory have been tested and confirmed for all dimensions. The hyperscaling relations between the exponents of the distribution functions and the fractal dimensions are shown to be valid for all dimensions. We found that the exponent of the distribution function of avalanche mass is the same for the d-dimensional cross sections and the d-dimensional BTW model for d=2 and 3. The geometrical quantities, however, have completely different behaviors with respect to the same-dimensional BTW model. By analyzing the FSS theory for the geometrical exponents of the two-dimensional cross sections, we propose that the 2D induced models have degrees of similarity with the Gaussian free field (GFF). Although some local exponents are slightly different, this similarity is excellent for the fractal dimensions. The most important one showing this feature is the fractal dimension of loops d_{f}, which is found to be 1.50±0.02≈3/2=d_{f}^{GFF}.

Mapping of the Bak, Tang, and Wiesenfeld sandpile model on a two-dimensional Ising-correlated percolation lattice to the two-dimensional self-avoiding random walk

The self-organized criticality on the random fractal networks has many motivations, like the movement pattern of fluid in the porous media. In addition to the randomness, introducing correlation between the neighboring portions of the porous media has some nontrivial effects. In this paper, we consider the Ising-like interactions between the active sites as the simplest method to bring correlations in the porous media, and we investigate the statistics of the BTW model in it. These correlations are controlled by the artificial "temperature" T and the sign of the Ising coupling. Based on our numerical results, we propose that at the Ising critical temperature T_{c} the model is compatible with the universality class of two-dimensional (2D) self-avoiding walk (SAW). Especially the fractal dimension of the loops, which are defined as the external frontier of the avalanches, is very close to D_{f}^{SAW}=4/3. Also, the corresponding open curves has conformal invariance with the root-mean-square distance R_{rms}∼t^{3/4} (t being the parametrization of the curve) in accordance with the 2D SAW. In the finite-size study, we observe that at T=T_{c} the model has some aspects compatible with the 2D BTW model (e.g., the 1/log(L)-dependence of the exponents of the distribution functions) and some in accordance with the Ising model (e.g., the 1/L-dependence of the fractal dimensions). The finite-size scaling theory is tested and shown to be fulfilled for all statistical observables in T=T_{c}. In the off-critical temperatures in the close vicinity of T_{c} the exponents show some additional power-law behaviors in terms of T-T_{c} with some exponents that are reported in the text. The spanning cluster probability at the critical temperature also scales with L^{1/2}, which is different from the regular 2D BTW model.

Determination of the conformal-field-theory central charge by the Wang-Landau algorithm

We present a simple method to estimate the central charge of the conformal field theory corresponding to a critical point of a two-dimensional lattice model from Monte Carlo simulations. The main idea is to use the Wang-Landau flat-histogram algorithm, which allows us to obtain the free energy of a lattice model on a torus as a function of torus radii. The central charge is calculated with good precision from a free-energy scaling at the critical point. We apply the method to the Ising, tricritical Ising (Blume-Capel), Potts, and site-diluted Ising models, and we also discuss an estimation of the conformal weights.

Universality class of the structural phase transition in the normal phase of cuprate superconductors

The tetragonal-orthorhombic structural phase transition of oxygen atoms in the basal plane of YBa_{2}Cu_{3}O_{6+δ} high-T_{C} cuprate superconductors is studied numerically. By mapping the system onto the asymmetric next-nearest-neighbor Ising model, we characterize this phase transition. Results indicate the degrees of critical behavior. We show that this phase transition occurs at the temperature T_{C}≃0.148eV in the thermodynamic limit. By analyzing the critical exponents, it is found that this universality class displays some common features, with the two-dimensional three-state Potts model universality class, although the possibility of other universality classes cannot be ruled out. Conformal invariance at T=T_{c} is investigated using the Schramm-Loewner evolution (SLE) technique, and it is found that the SLE diffusivity parameter for this system is 3.34±0.01.

Fokker-Planck equation of Schramm-Loewner evolution

In this paper we statistically analyze the Fokker-Planck (FP) equation of Schramm-Loewner evolution (SLE) and its variant SLE(κ,ρc). After exploring the derivation and the properties of the Langevin equation of the tip of the SLE trace, we obtain the long- and short-time behaviors of the chordal SLE traces. We analyze the solutions of the FP and the corresponding Langevin equations and connect it to the conformal field theory (CFT) and present some exact results. We find the perturbative FP equation of the SLE(κ,ρc) traces and show that it is related to the higher-order correlation functions. Using the Langevin equation we find the long-time behaviors in this case. The CFT correspondence of this case is established and some exact results are presented.

Statistical investigation of the cross sections of wave clusters in the three-dimensional Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld model

We consider the three-dimensional (3D) Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld model in a cubic lattice. Along with analyzing the 3D problem, the geometrical structure of the two-dimensional (2D) cross section of waves is investigated. By analyzing the statistical observables defined in the cross sections, it is shown that the model in that plane (named as 2D-induced model) is in the critical state and fulfills the finite-size scaling hypothesis. The analysis of the critical loops that are interfaces of the 2D-induced model is of special importance in this paper. Most importantly, we see that their fractal dimension is D(f)=1.387±0.005, which is compatible with the fractal dimension of the external perimeter of geometrical spin clusters of 2D critical Ising model. Some hyperscaling relations between the exponents of the model are proposed and numerically confirmed. We then address the problem of conformal invariance of the mentioned domain walls using Schramm-Lowener evolution (SLE). We found that they are described by SLE with the diffusivity parameter κ=2.8±0.2, nearly consistent with observed fractal dimension.