We show that certain extended dissipative dynamical systems naturally evolve into a critical state, with no characteristic time or length scales. The temporal ``fingerprint'' of the self-or…
We show that certain extended dissipative dynamical systems naturally evolve into a critical state, with no characteristic time or length scales. The temporal ``fingerprint'' of the self-organized critical state is the presence of flicker noise or 1/f noise; its spatial signature is the emergence of scale-invariant (fractal) structure.