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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/L12325/01
Title: TRANSITIONS IN SELF-ORGANISED CRITICAL SYSTEMS
Principal Investigator: Jensen, Professor H
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
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Department: Mathematics
Organisation: Imperial College London
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 05 October 1996 Ends: 04 October 1999 Value (£): 45,440
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Condensed Matter Physics
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Summary on Grant Application Form
It has been suggested that dynamical systems of many degrees of freedom have a tendency to organize themselves into a state with no length or time scale- SOC behaviour. Many models have been developed which indeed do behave in this way. Experimentally many different systems have been found to exhibit SOC-like behaviour. In contrast to the analytical expectations SOC behaviour have been found even in the absence of a conservation law for the dynamical variable. The nature of the SOC state is still not very well understood. The exact conditions needed for SOC to appear have not yet been established. We have found a simple model with an easily identified transition from SOC to non-SOC behaviour. This model enables us to study the conditions under which SOC can emerge. In addition we have a strong candidate (namely the branching ratio) for a quantity which can be used in a way analogous to the order parameter in equilibrium phase transitions. The generality of the behaviour of our specific model will be tested by use of renormalization group techniques as well as by numerical studies of different classes of models. The link to experiments will be established.
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Organisation Website: http://www.imperial.ac.uk