We study sandpile models as closed systems, with the conserved energy density $\zeta$ playing the role of an external parameter. The critical energy density ${\zeta }_c$ marks a nonequilibrium phase transition between active and absorbing states. Several fixed-energy sandpiles are studied in extensive simulations of stationary and transient properties, as well as the dynamics of roughening in an interface-height representation. Our primary goal is to identify the universality classes of such models, in hopes of assessing the validity of two recently proposed approaches to sandpiles: a phenomenological continuum Langevin description with absorbing states, and a mapping to driven interface dynamics in random media.

• Received 22 December 1999

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.62.4564