title: Highly optimized tolerance: robustness and design in complex systems
abstract: Highly optimized tolerance (HOT) is a mechanism that relates evolving structure to power laws in interconnected systems. HOT systems arise where design and evolution create complex systems sharing common features, including (1) high efficiency, performance, and robustness to designed-for uncertainties, (2) hypersensitivity to design flaws and unanticipated perturbations, (3) nongeneric, specialized, structured configurations, and (4) power laws. We study the impact of incorporating increasing levels of design and find that even small amounts of design lead to HOT states in percolation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA.
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Carlson
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Doyle