https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510051113
Finite-size effects in the self-organized critical forest-fire model
1
Physik-Department der Technischen Universität München, James Franck Straße, 85747 Garching
2
Theory Group, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
3
iXOS Software AG, 85630 Grasbrunn, Germany
Received:
24
April
1999
Revised:
26
October
1999
Published online: 15 May 2000
We study finite-size effects in the self-organized critical forest-fire model by numerically evaluating the tree density and the fire size distribution. The results show that this model does not display the finite-size scaling seen in conventional critical systems. Rather, the system is composed of relatively homogeneous patches of different tree densities, leading to two qualitatively different types of fires: those that span an entire patch and those that do not. As the system size becomes smaller, the system contains less patches, and finally becomes homogeneous, with large density fluctuations in time.
PACS: 05.40.-a – Fluctuation phenomena, random processes, noise, and Brownian motion / 05.70.Jk – Critical point phenomena / 05.70.Ln – Nonequilibrium and irreversible thermodynamics
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2000