2024-03-29T12:30:59Zhttp://digital.csic.es/dspace-oai/requestoai:digital.csic.es:10261/257282016-02-16T07:48:17Zcom_10261_2855com_10261_4col_10261_2857
2010-06-28T10:52:07Z
urn:hdl:10261/25728
Variational Principle for the Pareto Power Law
Chakraborti, Anirban
Patriarca, Marco
A mechanism is proposed for the appearance of power-law distributions in various complex systems. It
is shown that in a conservative mechanical system composed of subsystems with different numbers of
degrees of freedom a robust power-law tail can appear in the equilibrium distribution of energy as a result
of certain superpositions of the canonical equilibrium energy densities of the subsystems. The derivation
only uses a variational principle based on the Boltzmann entropy, without assumptions outside the
framework of canonical equilibrium statistical mechanics. Two examples are discussed, free diffusion on a
complex network and a kinetic model of wealth exchange. The mechanism is illustrated in the general
case through an exactly solvable mechanical model of a dimensionally heterogeneous system.
2010-06-28T10:52:07Z
2010-06-28T10:52:07Z
2009
artÃculo
Physical Review Letters 103: 228701 (2009)
0031-9007
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/25729
10.1103/PhysRevLett.103.228701
eng
openAccess
American Physical Society