Dynamic Renormalization Group Approach to Self-Organized Critical Phenomena

Two different models exhibiting self-organized criticality are analyzed by means of the dynamic renormalization group. Although the two models differ by their behavior under a parity transformation of the order parameter, it is shown that they both belong to the same universality class, in agreement with computer simulations. The asymptotic values of the critical exponents are estimated up to one loop order from a systematic expansion of a nonlinear equation in the number of coupling constants.