Self-organised-criticality and punctuated equilibrium in bouncing balls

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that a system of nonlinearly coupled bouncing balls exhibits self-organised-criticality and punctuated equilibrium, revealing universal features like the Gutenberg-Richter relation and Devil's staircase in complex systems.

Contribution

It shows that a simple bouncing ball system can display SOC and PE behaviors, connecting these phenomena to universal patterns in complex systems.

Findings

Exhibits SOC and PE in parameter domains

Follows Gutenberg-Richter relation

Manifests Devil's staircase

Abstract

A nonlinearly coupled system of bouncing balls is shown to exhibit features like self-organised-criticality (SOC) and punctuated equilibrium (PE) in suitable parameter domains. The temporal evolution of the non-stationary amplitudes is analysed through local methods to unravel the transient periodic components and fluctuations giving rise to SOC and PE type behaviours. This simple dynamical system follows Gutenberg-Richter relation and also manifests the Devil's staircase, explicating the universality of these features in diverse complex systems.