1/f noise from correlations between avalanches in self-organized criticality

Abstract

We show that large, slowly driven systems can evolve to a self-organized critical state where long range temporal correlations between bursts or avalanches produce low frequency \(1/f^{\alpha}\) noise. The avalanches can occur instantaneously in the external time scale of the slow drive, and their event statistics are described by power law distributions. A specific example of this behavior is provided by numerical simulations of a deterministic ``sandpile'' model.