Turbulent self-organized criticality

Abstract

In the prototype sandpile model of self-organized criticality time series obtained by decomposing avalanches into waves of toppling show intermittent fluctuations. The q-th moments of wave size differences possess local multiscaling and global simple scaling regimes analogous to those holding for velocity structure functions in fluid turbulence. The correspondence involves identity of a basic scaling relation and of the form of relevant probability distributions. The sandpile provides a qualitative analog of many features of turbulent phenomena.