BOLTZMANN FLUCTUATIONS IN NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF NONEQUILIBRIUM THRESHOLD SYSTEMS

Nonequilibrium threshold systems such as slider blocks are now used to model a variety of dynamical systems, including earthquake faults, dr iven neural networks, and sliding charge density waves. We show that f or general mean field models driven at low rates fluctuations in the i nternal energy field are characterized by Boltzmann statistics. Numeri cal simulations confirm this prediction. Our results indicate that mea n field models can be effectively treated as equilibrium systems.