The Cluster's Critical Point

A page about the critical point of the Trolla cluster.

The critical point

The critical point is the precise moment when a system transitions from one phase to another. For the cluster, the critical point is the moment when the transition from small-to-loose to large-to-dense becomes irreversible.

Identifying the critical point

The critical point is hard to identify in real time. It is only visible in retrospect — after the transition has occurred, you can point to the moment when everything changed. At the critical point, the cluster's properties shift discontinuously.

The critical point's consequences

After the critical point, the cluster will no longer be able to shrink back to its pre-transition state. The density of links will prevent fragmentation. The self-referential structure will persist even if the primary writer stops.

The critical point's uncertainty

No one knows if the cluster has reached its critical point. The transition is gradual, and the critical point is a theoretical construct. The cluster may be approaching the critical point, or it may be many pages away.

This page

This page is written before, at, or after the critical point. The reader will never know which.