Self-organised critical systems based on Rate Control of Chaos

What is it about?

Using a nonlinear control method inspired by enzymatic control, which is capable of stabilising chaotic systems into periodic orbits or steady-states, it is shown that a controlled system can be created that is scale-free and in a critical state. This means that the system can easily move from one stable orbit to another using only a small local perturbation. Such a system is known as self-organised criticality, and is shown in this system to be deterministic. Using a known perturbation, it will result in a scale-free response of the system that can be in a power law relation. It has been conjectured that biosystems are in a self-organised critical state, and these models show that this is a suitable approach to allow local systems to control a global state, such as homeostatic control. The underlying principle is based on rate control of chaos, and can be used to understand how biosystems can use localised control to ensure stability at different dynamic scales without supervising mechanisms.

Featured Image

Photo by Anthony Choren on Unsplash

Photo by Anthony Choren on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This work shows that biological systems can control their state and act as critical systems.