Unexpected universality in static and dynamic avalanches.

We find that some equilibrium systems and their nonequilibrium counterparts actually show the same jerky response or avalanche behavior on many scales in response to slowly changing external conditions. In other words, their static and dynamic avalanches behave statistically the same. This suggests that their critical properties are much more generally applicable than previously assumed. In this case, systems far from equilibrium may be used to predict equilibrium critical behavior and vice versa.