Avalanche 2026

Rather than responding smoothly to external forcing, many driven physical systems evolve through sudden, discontinuous reorganizations. These abrupt releases of activity, commonly referred to as avalanches, reflect the collective dynamics of strongly interacting degrees of freedom operating far from equilibrium. Despite the diversity of physical realizations, avalanche processes often share robust statistical features, including strong intermittency, large fluctuations, and heavy-tailed distributions, suggesting the presence of universal organizing principles.

Such behavior emerges across a remarkable range of systems and scales, from microscopic rearrangements in crystalline and amorphous materials to macroscopic phenomena such as earthquakes, landslides, and neural activity. Understanding how macroscopic, stochastic burst dynamics arise from underlying microscopic interactions remains a central challenge in contemporary physics and complex systems science.

The aim of this interdisciplinary workshop is to bring together researchers working on these seemingly diverse systems in order to highlight unifying mechanisms, theoretical frameworks, and methodological tools underlying avalanche processes. Particular emphasis will be placed on identifying common trends and transferable concepts that can advance our understanding of intermittency, criticality, and extreme events across disciplines.

Contributions are welcome on recent experimental observations, numerical simulations, and theoretical developments, including modeling approaches and mathematical methods for the analysis and characterization of avalanche dynamics.

The workshop continues a long-standing series of meetings dedicated to avalanche phenomena and crackling noise, including:

• Crackling Noise and Intermittency in Condensed Matter (Göttingen, Germany, 2013),

• Avalanches in Functional Materials and Geophysics (Cambridge, UK, 2014),

• Workshop on Avalanche Processes in Condensed Matter Physics and Beyond (Barcelona, Spain, 2017),

• Avalanche Dynamics and Precursors of Catastrophic Events (Les Houches, France, 2019),

• Avalanche 2022 (Debrecen, Hungary),

• Avalanche 2024, held at the Hanasaari Conference Centre and the Aalto University Campus (Espoo, Finland).

Technical Support

 Steering Committee

For any information, please contact Prof. Lucilla de Arcangelis:

lucilla.dearcangelis@unicampania.it