Emergent spatial structures in critical sandpiles

Abstract

We introduce and study a new directed sandpile model with threshold dynamics and stochastic toppling rules. We show that particle conservation law and the directed percolation-like local evolution of avalanches lead to the formation of a spatial structure in the steady state, with the density developing a power law tail away from the top. We determine the scaling exponents characterizing the avalanche distributions in terms of the critical exponents of directed percolation in all dimensions.

4 pages, 4 Postscript figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett