Meta-universality classes at criticality

Abstract

Inferring the presence of critical dynamics from continuous measure- ments is a challenging problem. We solve this problem by showing that continuous narrowband dynamics from a critical system exhibit qualita- tively differing behaviors which depend on the universality class; we term each region of critical avalanche parameters which generates qualitatively constant behavior a meta-universality class. This theoretical observation allows us to infer membership of a given meta-universality class and thus yields a robust test for criticality. We validate these theoretical predic- tions in simulations and provide unequivocal evidence for criticality in the human brain on the basis electrophysiological recordings.