Self-Organized Criticality

Bottom-up model of self-organized criticality on networks

The Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld (BTW) sandpile process is an archetypal, stylized model of complex systems with a critical point as an attractor of their dynamics. This phenomenon, called self-organized criticality, appears to occur ubiquitously in both …

Controlling self-organizing dynamics using models that self-organize

Controlling self-organizing systems is challenging because the system responds to the controller. Here, we develop a model that captures the essential self-organizing mechanisms of Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld (BTW) sandpiles on networks, a self-organized …

Suppressing cascades of load in interdependent networks

Understanding how interdependence among systems affects cascading behaviors is increasingly important across many fields of science and engineering. Inspired by cascades of load shedding in coupled electric grids and other infrastructure, we study …