title: System size resonance in coupled noisy systems and in the Ising model.
abstract: We consider an ensemble of coupled nonlinear noisy oscillators demonstrating in the thermodynamic limit an Ising-type transition. In the ordered phase and for finite ensembles stochastic flips of the mean field are observed with the rate depending on the ensemble size. When a small periodic force acts on the ensemble, the linear response of the system has a maximum at a certain system size, similar to the stochastic resonance phenomenon. We demonstrate this effect of system size resonance for different types of noisy oscillators and for different ensembles---lattices with nearest neighbors coupling and globally coupled populations. The Ising model is also shown to demonstrate the system size resonance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Potsdam, Postfach 601553, D-14415 Potsdam, Germany.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pikovsky
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zaikin
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: de la Casa