Statistical measures of complexity for strongly interacting systems

Abstract

In recent studies, new measures of complexity for nonlinear systems have been proposed based on probabilistic grounds, as the LMC measure (Phys. Lett. A {\bf 209} (1995) 321) or the SDL measure (Phys. Rev. E {\bf 59} (1999) 2). All these measures share an intuitive consideration: complexity seems to emerge in nature close to instability points, as for example the phase transition points characteristic of critical phenomena. Here we discuss these measures and their reliability for detecting complexity close to critical points in complex systems composed of many interacting units. Both a two-dimensional spatially extended problem (the 2D Ising model) and a $\infty$-dimensional (random graph) model (random Boolean networks) are analysed. It is shown that the LMC and the SDL measures can be easily generalized to extended systems but fails to detect real complexity.