A macroscopic description of a generalized self-organized criticality system: Astrophysical applications
- Lockheed Martin Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, A021S, Building 252, 3251 Hanover Street, Palo Alto, CA 94304 (United States)
We suggest a generalized definition of self-organized criticality (SOC) systems: SOC is a critical state of a nonlinear energy dissipation system that is slowly and continuously driven toward a critical value of a system-wide instability threshold, producing scale-free, fractal-diffusive, and intermittent avalanches with power law-like size distributions. We develop here a macroscopic description of SOC systems that provides an equivalent description of the complex microscopic fine structure, in terms of fractal-diffusive transport (FD-SOC). Quantitative values for the size distributions of SOC parameters (length scales L, time scales T, waiting times Δt, fluxes F, and fluences or energies E) are derived from first principles, using the scale-free probability conjecture, N(L)dL∝L {sup –d}, for Euclidean space dimension d. We apply this model to astrophysical SOC systems, such as lunar craters, the asteroid belt, Saturn ring particles, magnetospheric substorms, radiation belt electrons, solar flares, stellar flares, pulsar glitches, soft gamma-ray repeaters, black-hole objects, blazars, and cosmic rays. The FD-SOC model predicts correctly the size distributions of 8 out of these 12 astrophysical phenomena, and indicates non-standard scaling laws and measurement biases for the others.
- OSTI ID:
- 22348026
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 782, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
AUTOMATED SOLAR FLARE STATISTICS IN SOFT X-RAYS OVER 37 YEARS OF GOES OBSERVATIONS: THE INVARIANCE OF SELF-ORGANIZED CRITICALITY DURING THREE SOLAR CYCLES
THE IRREGULAR SATELLITES: THE MOST COLLISIONALLY EVOLVED POPULATIONS IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM