Universal scaling laws for large events in driven nonequilibrium systems

For many driven-nonequilibrium systems, the probability distribution functions of magnitude and recurrence-time of large events follow a power law indicating a strong temporal correlation. In this paper we discuss universal scaling laws connecting the magnitudes, recurrence-time, and spatial intervals of large events obtained in recent work in earthquakes, solar flares, and related nonequilibrium systems. The relationships between the scaling exponents have also been studied. We show that the ion channel current in voltage-dependent anion channels obeys the universal scaling law.