Self-Organized Criticality and Dynamic Instability of Microtubule Growth

1995 ◽  
Vol 50 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 739-740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Babinec ◽  
Melánia Babincová

Abstract We have shown that the distribution of lengths of site nucleated microtubules obey an algebraic power law relationship D(s) = As-τ, where D(s) is relative number of microtubules with length 5, A and τ are constants. This relationship indicates the possibility of a self-organized criticality in the dynamic instability of microtubule growth

2018 ◽  
Vol 618 ◽  
pp. A183
Author(s):  
A. Shapoval ◽  
J.-L. Le Mouël ◽  
M. Shnirman ◽  
V. Courtillot

Context. The hypothesis stating that the distribution of sunspot groups versus their size (φ) follows a power law in the domain of small groups was recently highlighted but rejected in favor of a Weibull distribution. Aims. In this paper we reconsider this question, and are led to the opposite conclusion. Methods. We have suggested a new definition of group size, namely the spatio-temporal “volume” (V) obtained as the sum of the observed daily areas instead of a single area associated with each group. Results. With this new definition of “size”, the width of the power-law part of the distribution φ ∼ 1/Vβ increases from 1.5 to 2.5 orders of magnitude. The exponent β is close to 1. The width of the power-law part and its exponent are stable with respect to the different catalogs and computational procedures used to reduce errors in the data. The observed distribution is not fit adequately by a Weibull distribution. Conclusions. The existence of a wide 1/V part of the distribution φ suggests that self-organized criticality underlies the generation and evolution of sunspot groups and that the mechanism responsible for it is scale-free over a large range of sizes.


1996 ◽  
Vol 458 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Kendall ◽  
P. J. Cote ◽  
D. Crayon ◽  
F. J. Bonetto

ABSTRACTAcoustic emission (AE) events were recorded during the peeling of pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) tape from a silicate glass surface. The distributions of AE event durations and energies are found to have the form of power laws. Power-law dependencies (hyperbolic distributions) are recognized as a consequence of self-organized criticality (SOC), resulting from the absence of any characteristic length or time scales. In these studies, standard optical microscopy was used to characterize the fractal nature of the PSA-glass interface. The present results suggest that it is the inherent static structural features found at the fractal PSA-glass interface which produce the observed hyperbolic distributions in AE events, rather than a true SOC process.


1993 ◽  
Vol 07 (01n03) ◽  
pp. 934-937 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAUL J. COTE ◽  
LAWRENCE V. MEISEL

An investigation of the possibility that the Barkhausen effect in amorphous and polycrystalline ferromagnets is an example of self-organized criticality is described. Since the theory of self-organized criticality was introduced by Bak, Tang, and Weisenfeld to explain the behavior of spatially extended, dissipative, dynamical systems the Barkhausen effect is a natural candidate for such a description. The data are consistent with self-organized critical behavior: the power spectral densities depend on frequency f as 1/fa and the distribution of pulse energies are well described by a power law analogous to the Gutenberg-Richter law for earthquakes. Alternative explanations for power law dependences are also presented.


1999 ◽  
Vol 09 (12) ◽  
pp. 2249-2255 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. HAINZL ◽  
G. ZÖLLER ◽  
J. KURTHS

We introduce a crust relaxation process in a continuous cellular automaton version of the Burridge–Knopoff model. Analogously to the original model, our model displays a robust power law distribution of event sizes (Gutenberg–Richter law). The principal new result obtained with our model is the spatiotemporal clustering of events exhibiting several characteristics of earthquakes in nature. Large events are accompanied by a precursory quiescence and by localized fore- and aftershocks. The increase of foreshock activity as well as the decrease of aftershock activity follows a power law (Omori law) with similar exponents p and q. All empirically observed power law exponents, the Richter B-value, p and q and their variability can be reproduced simultaneously by our model, which depends mainly on the level of conservation and the relaxation time.


Author(s):  
Ian G. Main ◽  
Mark Naylor

We derive an analytical expression for entropy production in earthquake populations based on Dewar’s formulation, including flux (tectonic forcing) and source (earthquake population) terms, and apply it to the Olami–Feder–Christensen numerical model for earthquake dynamics. Assuming the commonly observed power-law rheology between driving stress and remote strain rate, we test the hypothesis that maximum entropy production (MEP) is a thermodynamic driver for self-organized ‘criticality’ (SOC) in the model. MEP occurs when the global elastic strain is near-critical, with small relative fluctuations in macroscopic strain energy expressed by a low seismic efficiency, and broad-bandwidth power-law scaling of frequency and rupture area. These phenomena, all as observed in natural earthquake populations, are hallmarks of the broad conceptual definition of SOC (which has, to date, often included self-organizing systems in a near but strictly subcritical state). In the MEP state, the strain field retains some memory of past events, expressed as coherent ‘domains’, implying a degree of predictability, albeit strongly limited in practice by the proximity to criticality and our inability to map the natural stress field at an equivalent resolution to the numerical model.


2008 ◽  
Vol 19 (07) ◽  
pp. 1063-1067 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. W. S. LIMA

On directed and undirected Barabási–Albert networks the Ising model with spin S = 1/2 in the presence of a kind of noise is now studied through Monte Carlo simulations. The noise spectrum P(n) follows a power law, where P(n) is the probability of flipping randomly select n spins at each time step. The noise spectrum P(n) is introduced to mimic the self-organized criticality as a model influence of a complex environment. In this model, different from the square lattice, the order-disorder phase transition of the order parameter is not observed. For directed Barabási–Albert networks the magnetisation tends to zero exponentially and undirected Barabási–Albert networks remain constant.


Fractals ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 06 (04) ◽  
pp. 351-357 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. C. Roberts ◽  
D. L. Turcotte

This paper considers the frequency-size statistics of wars. Using several alternative measures of the intensity of a war in terms of battle deaths, we find a fractal (power-law) dependence of number on intensity. We show that the frequency-size dependence of forest fires is essentially identical to that of wars. The forest-fire model provides a basis for understanding the distribution of forest firest in terms of self-organized criticality. We extend the analogy to wars in terms of the initial ignition (outbreak of war) and its spread to a group of metastable countries.


Entropy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 1055
Author(s):  
Bogatov ◽  
Podgursky ◽  
Vagiström ◽  
Yashin ◽  
Shaikh ◽  
...  

The paper investigates the variation of friction force (Fx) during reciprocating sliding tests on nanocrystalline diamond (NCD) films. The analysis of the friction behavior during the run-in period is the focus of the study. The NCD films were grown using microwave plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (MW-PECVD) on single-crystalline diamond SCD(110) substrates. Reciprocating sliding tests were conducted under 500 and 2000 g of normal load using Si3N4 balls as a counter body. The friction force permanently varies during the test, namely Fx value can locally increase or decrease in each cycle of sliding. The distribution of friction force drops (dFx) was extracted from the experimental data using a specially developed program. The analysis revealed a power-law distribution f-µ of dFx for the early stage of the run-in with the exponent value (µ) in the range from 0.6 to 2.9. In addition, the frequency power spectrum of Fx time series follows power-law distribution f-α with α value in the range of 1.0–2.0, with the highest values (1.6–2.0) for the initial stage of the run-in. No power-law distribution of dFx was found for the later stage of the run-in and the steady-state periods of sliding with the exception for periods where a relatively extended decrease of coefficient of friction (COF) was observed. The asperity interlocking leads to the stick-slip like sliding at the early stage of the run-in. This tribological behavior can be related to the self-organized criticality (SOC). The emergence of dissipative structures at the later stages of the run-in, namely the formation of ripples, carbonaceous tribolayer, etc., can be associated with the self-organization (SO).


Author(s):  
M. E. J. Newman ◽  
R. G. Palmer

The models discussed in the last chapter are intriguing, but present a number of problems. In particular, most of the results about them come from computer simulations, and little is known analytically about their properties. Results such as the power-law distribution of extinction sizes and the system's evolution to the "edge of chaos" are only as accurate as the simulations in which they are observed. Moreover, it is not even clear what the mechanisms responsible for these results are, beyond the rather general arguments that we have already given. In order to address these shortcomings, Bak and Sneppen (1993; Sneppen et al. 1995; Sneppen 1995; Bak 1996) have taken Kauffman's ideas, with some modification, and used them to create a considerably simpler model of large-scale coevolution which also shows a power-law distribution of avalanche sizes and which is simple enough that its properties can, to some extent, be understood analytically. Although the model does not directly address the question of extinction, a number of authors have interpreted it, using arguments similar to those of section 1.2.2.5, as a possible model for extinction by biotic causes. The Bak-Sneppen model is one of a class of models that show "self-organized criticality," which means that regardless of the state in which they start, they always tune themselves to a critical point of the type discussed in section 2.4, where power-law behavior is seen. We describe self-organized criticality in more detail in section 3.2. First, however, we describe the Bak-Sneppen model itself. In the model of Bak and Sneppen there are no explicit fitness landscapes, as there are in NK models. Instead the model attempts to mimic the effects of landscapes in terms of "fitness barriers." Consider figure 3.1, which is a toy representation of a fitness landscape in which there is only one dimension in the genotype (or phenotype) space. If the mutation rate is low compared with the time scale on which selection takes place (as Kauffman assumed), then a population will spend most of its time localized around a peak in the landscape (labeled P in the figure).


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