Scenarios for self-organized criticality in dynamical systems (Q2748000)

A dissipative system, which converges to a steady state, shows \textit{criticality}, if there is no characteristic time for evolution. In other words the convergence rate is proportional to \(t^{-\alpha}\) for some \(\alpha>0\) rather than \(e^{-t/\tau}\). The authors obtain mathematical conditions that allow-self-organized criticality in a dynamical system. These include existence of a manifold of equilibria. These conditions are not generically fulfilled, but the authors provide a model of a catalytic chemical reaction, which satisfies these conditions in a natural way.