This is the 2D counterpart to the 3D pulsar-glitch simulation — not a flattened version of its scene. The 3D model gives every vortex the same critical lag and releases a fixed fraction of the stored lag the instant the mean lag crosses it. This 2D model instead simulates each of 480 vortices individually: every vortex sits at its own fixed pinning site in the crust and carries its own randomly-drawn critical lag τᵢ, and unpinning can trigger neighbors through a local stress-coupling term — a genuine self-organized-criticality (SOC) avalanche network, the same class of model (Warszawski & Melatos) used to explain why real glitch sizes are so variable.
τᵢ = τ₀ · (0.6 + 0.8·rand) (heterogeneous pinning per site)
unpin i when τᵢ,eff ≤ Δ = Ω_sf − Ω_c
on unpin: ΔΩ_c += (I_sf/I_c)·Δ/N_pinned , ΔΩ_sf −= Δ/N_pinned
neighbor stress: τⱼ,eff −= coupling·0.35·τⱼ (may trigger j too → cascade)
Each unpinning releases only its equal share of the currently-stored lag, exactly conserving angular momentum between the crust and superfluid components (Isf/Ic ≈ 1.6%, same ratio as the 3D model). But because unpinning one vortex nudges its neighbors' thresholds down, a single trigger can cascade through the pinned population before it stops — the size of that cascade is not fixed in advance, it emerges from the dynamics.
- Pinning disorder — how much individual thresholds vary around the nominal value. Zero disorder means every vortex would trigger almost together; higher disorder spreads out when each one crosses its own line.
- Vortex-vortex coupling — how strongly one unpinning vortex destabilizes its neighbors. Low coupling gives a trickle regime of frequent, tiny avalanches; high coupling gives a domino regime of rare, large ones — watch the avalanche size range and the sawtooth chart change shape as you move this slider.
- Cyan dots are pinned vortices, corotating with the crust reference spokes. An orange flash marks a vortex mid-cascade; it then re-pins at a fresh (randomized) threshold, matching how real unpinned vortices creep outward and re-attach to new lattice sites.
- The strip chart below tracks νc(t): a slow secular decline from magnetic braking, broken by sudden upward jumps exactly when an avalanche fires — the classic sawtooth signature seen in real pulsars like Vela and Crab.
Time here is heavily accelerated for visibility, as in the 3D pair — a real Vela glitch takes years to build up and seconds to release.