Self-organized criticality, long-time correlations, and the standard transport paradigm

Some aspects of low-frequency, long-wavelength fluctuations are considered. A stochastic model is used to show that power-law time correlations need not arise from self-organized criticality. A formula for the frequency spectrum of uncorrelated, overlapping avalanches is shown to be a special case of the spectral balance equation of renormalized statistical turbulence theory. It is argued that there need be no contradiction between the presence of long-time correlations and the existence of local transport coefficients. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S1070-664X(00)92605-3].