The anisotropic Bak-Sneppen model

The Bak-Sneppen model is shown to fall into a different universality class with the introduction of a preferred direction, mirroring the situation in spin systems. This is first demonstrated by numerical simulations and subsequently confirmed by analysis of the multitrait version of the model, which admits exact solutions in the extremes of zero and maximal anisotropy. For intermediate anisotropies, we show that the spatiotemporal evolution of the avalanche has a power law 'tail' which passes through the system for any non-zero anisotropy but remains fixed for the isotropic case, thus explaining the crossover in behaviour. Finally, we identify the maximally anisotropic model which is more tractable and yet more generally applicable than the isotropic system.