Extreme Fluctuations in Small-Worlds with Relaxational Dynamics

We study the distribution and scaling of the extreme height fluctuations for Edwards-Wilkinson-type relaxation on small-world substrates. When random links are added to a one-dimensional lattice, the average size of the fluctuations becomes finite (synchronized state) and the extreme height diverges only logarithmically in the large system-size limit. This latter property ensures synchronization in a practical sense in small-world coupled multi-component autonomous systems. The statistics of the extreme heights is governed by the Fisher-Tippett-Gumbel distribution.