Self-organization to multicriticality

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sormunen, Silja, Gross, Thilo, Saramäki, Jari
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866911108734910464
author Sormunen, Silja
Gross, Thilo
Saramäki, Jari
author_facet Sormunen, Silja
Gross, Thilo
Saramäki, Jari
contents Self-organized criticality is a well-established phenomenon, where a system dynamically tunes its structure to operate on the verge of a phase transition. Here, we show that the dynamics inside the self-organized critical state are fundamentally far more versatile than previously recognized, to the extent that a system can self-organize to a new type of phase transition while staying on the verge of another. In this first demonstration of self-organization to multicriticality, we investigate a model of coupled oscillators on a random network, where the network topology evolves in response to the oscillator dynamics. We show that the system first self-organizes to the onset of oscillations, after which it drifts to the onset of pattern formation while still remaining at the onset of oscillations, thus becoming critical in two different ways at once. The observed evolution to multicriticality is robust generic behavior that we expect to be widespread in self-organizing systems. Overall, these results offer a unifying framework for studying systems, such as the brain, where multiple phase transitions may be relevant for proper functioning.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_04275
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Self-organization to multicriticality
Sormunen, Silja
Gross, Thilo
Saramäki, Jari
Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems
Self-organized criticality is a well-established phenomenon, where a system dynamically tunes its structure to operate on the verge of a phase transition. Here, we show that the dynamics inside the self-organized critical state are fundamentally far more versatile than previously recognized, to the extent that a system can self-organize to a new type of phase transition while staying on the verge of another. In this first demonstration of self-organization to multicriticality, we investigate a model of coupled oscillators on a random network, where the network topology evolves in response to the oscillator dynamics. We show that the system first self-organizes to the onset of oscillations, after which it drifts to the onset of pattern formation while still remaining at the onset of oscillations, thus becoming critical in two different ways at once. The observed evolution to multicriticality is robust generic behavior that we expect to be widespread in self-organizing systems. Overall, these results offer a unifying framework for studying systems, such as the brain, where multiple phase transitions may be relevant for proper functioning.
title Self-organization to multicriticality
topic Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.04275