Category: Physics

Summary: Measuring how small-world shortcuts change the temporal correlations of avalanches in the Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld sandpile model.

Self-organized critical systems are usually described by their avalanche size distributions, but the time ordering of those avalanches can also carry structure. This experiment asks whether adding small-world shortcuts to a sandpile network changes avalanche sequences from anticorrelated to positively correlated by creating long-range pathways for cascade memory.

The simulation builds rewired networks, drives the sandpile to steady state, and records avalanche time series while varying the rewiring probability. The target is the crossover point where temporal autocorrelation changes sign rather than just the usual static critical exponents.

That matters because network shortcuts can alter how one event influences the next even when the local toppling rule is unchanged. The experiment therefore probes the temporal organization of critical activity, not only its size statistics.

Method: Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld sandpile simulations on small-world networks with autocorrelation analysis of avalanche time series.

What is measured: Avalanche temporal autocorrelation, crossover rewiring probability, avalanche size statistics, and steady-state time-series diagnostics.