Driving-induced crossover: from classical criticality to self-organized criticality

TL;DR

This paper introduces a spin model demonstrating how slow driving can induce a transition from classical criticality requiring fine-tuning to self-organized criticality that is robust to disorder, depending on the driving mode.

Contribution

It presents a novel spin model showing a crossover between classical and self-organized criticality driven by the mode of external driving.

Findings

Crossover from classical to self-organized criticality with changing driving mode

Universality class shifts from order-disorder to quenched Edwards-Wilkinson

Model applicable to phenomena like magnetism and earthquakes

Abstract

We propose a spin model with quenched disorder which exhibits in slow driving two drastically different types of critical nonequilibrium steady states. One of them corresponds to classical criticality requiring fine-tuning of the disorder. The other is a self-organized criticality which is insensitive to disorder. The crossover between the two types of criticality is determined by the mode of driving. As one moves from "soft" to "hard" driving the universality class of the critical point changes from a classical order-disorder to a quenched Edwards-Wilkinson universality class. The model is viewed as prototypical for a broad class of physical phenomena ranging from magnetism to earthquakes.