title: System crash as dynamics of complex networks.
abstract: Complex systems, from animal herds to human nations, sometimes crash drastically. Although the growth and evolution of systems have been extensively studied, our understanding of how systems crash is still limited. It remains rather puzzling why some systems, appearing to be doomed to fail, manage to survive for a long time whereas some other systems, which seem to be too big or too strong to fail, crash rapidly. In this contribution, we propose a network-based system dynamics model, where individual actions based on the local information accessible in their respective system structures may lead to the "peculiar" dynamics of system crash mentioned above. Extensive simulations are carried out on synthetic and real-life networks, which further reveal the interesting system evolution leading to the final crash. Applications and possible extensions of the proposed model are discussed.
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798; Complexity Institute, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798; EGXXiao@ntu.edu.sg zhenwang0@gmail.com john@pik-potsdam.de.
authors.forename: Gaoxi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798.
authors.forename: Yubo
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong 266071, China; Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Engineering Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka 816-8580, Japan; EGXXiao@ntu.edu.sg zhenwang0@gmail.com john@pik-potsdam.de.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, 14473 Potsdam, Germany; Department of Physics, Humboldt University, 12489 Berlin, Germany; Institute for Complex Systems and Mathematical Biology, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kurths
authors.affiliation: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, 14473 Potsdam, Germany; EGXXiao@ntu.edu.sg zhenwang0@gmail.com john@pik-potsdam.de.
authors.forename: Hans Joachim
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Schellnhuber
keywords: cascade behavior; complex systems; pseudo-steady state; system crash