Bilinear effect in complex systems
Abstract
The distribution of the lifetime of Chinese dynasties (as well as that of the British Isles and Japan) in a linear Zipf plot is found to consist of two straight lines intersecting at a transition point. This two-section piecewise-linear distribution is different from the power law or the stretched exponent distribution, and is called the Bilinear Effect for short. With assumptions mimicking the organization of ancient Chinese regimes, a 3-layer network model is constructed. Numerical results of this model show the bilinear effect, providing a plausible explanation of the historical data. Bilinear effect in two other social systems is presented, indicating that such a piecewise-linear effect is widespread in social systems.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1003.5281,
title = {Bilinear effect in complex systems},
author = {Lui Lam and David C. Bellavia and Xiao-Pu Han and Chih-Hui Alston Liu and Chang-Qing Shu and Zhengjin Wei and Tao Zhou and Jichen Zhu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1003.5281},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
5 pages, 5 figures