We investigate, using mean-field theory and simulation, the effect of asymmetry on the critical behavior and probability density of Bak–Sneppen models. Two kinds of anisotropy are investigated: (i) different numbers of sites to the left and right of the central (minimum) site are updated and...

We propose a kind of Bak–Sneppen dynamics as a general optimization technique to treat magnetic systems. The resulting dynamics shows self-organized criticality with power-law scaling of the spatial and temporal correlations. An alternative method of the extremal optimization (EO) is also...