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MENTAL MODEL · M4242

Self-Organized Criticality, SOC

Self-Organized Criticality, SOC
SystemsHigh supportSystems Theory
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Version 1.0.0 · Updated 2026-07-28

CORE DEFINITION

Self-organized criticality is a property of certain dynamical systems. The property is that their critical point is an attractor. The phase transition critical point exhibits scale invariance in the temporal and spatial distribution of its macroscopic manifestations, and this scale invariance can be achieved without tuning system parameters. The concept was first proposed in 1987 by Per Bak, Chao Tang, and Kurt Wiesenfeld.

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Self-organized criticality is a property of certain dynamical systems. The property is that their critical point is an attractor. The phase transition critical point exhibits scale invariance in the temporal and spatial distribution of its macroscopic manifestations, and this scale invariance can be achieved without tuning system parameters. The concept was first proposed in 1987 by Per Bak, Chao Tang, and Kurt Wiesenfeld.

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SOC refers to a class of open dynamical systems that spontaneously evolve to a 'critical state'—at the critical point, events of any scale can occur, and the event sizes (avalanche sizes) follow a power-law distribution with no characteristic scale. The system reaches and maintains criticality through slow driving (e.g., continuous addition of sand) and fast relaxation (sand avalanches). Small perturbations can trigger large collapses because local stress has propagated globally through long-range correlations.

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    zh.wikipedia.orghttps://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%87%AA%E7%BB%84%E7%BB%87%E4%B8%B4%E7%95%8C%E6%80%A7ZH · Explicit
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