Abstract
We report on the computer study of a lattice system that relaxes from a metastable state. Under appropriate nonequilibrium randomness, relaxation occurs by avalanches, i. e., the model evolution is discontinuous and displays many scales in a way that closely resembles the relaxation in a large number of complex systems in nature. Such apparent scale invariance simply results in the model from summing over many exponential relaxations, each with a scale which is determined by the curvature of the domain wall at which the avalanche originates. The claim that scale invariance in a nonequilibrium setting is to be associated with criticality is therefore not supported. Some hints that may help in checking this experimentally are discussed.
Users
Please
log in to take part in the discussion (add own reviews or comments).