1/f Noise and Long Configuration Memory in Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld Models on Narrow Stripes

We report our findings of an 1 /f power spectrum for the total amount of sand in directed and undirected Bak-Tang-Wiesenfeld models confined on narrow stripes and driven locally. The underlying mechanism for the 1 /f noise in these systems is an exponentially long configuration memory giving rise to a very broad distribution of time scales. Both models are solved analytically with the help of an operator algebra to explicitly show the appearance of the long configuration memory.