Temporal criticality

José Moran, Frank P. Pijpers, Utz Weitzel, Debabrata Panja, Jean-Philippe Bouchaud, Matthijs Romeijnders and Pierre Le Doussal

INET Oxford Working Papers from Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford

Abstract: In complex systems, external parameters often determine the phase in which the system operates, i.e., its macroscopic behavior. For nearly a century, statistical physics has extensively studied systems' transitions across phases, (universal) critical exponents, and related dynamical properties. Here we consider the functionality of systems, notably operations in socio-technical ones, production in economic ones and possibly information-processing in biological ones, where timing is of crucial importance. We introduce a stylized model on temporal networks with the magnitude of delay-mitigating buffers as the control parameter. The model exhibits temporal criticality, a novel form of critical behavior in time. We characterize fluctuations near criticality, commonly referred to as "avalanches", and identify the corresponding critical exponents. We show that real-world temporal networks, too, exhibit temporal criticality. We also explore potential connections with the Mode-Coupling Theory of glasses and the directed polymer problem.

Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2023-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ger and nep-hme
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:amz:wpaper:2023-18

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