Sample space reducing cascading processes produce the full spectrum of scaling exponents

Sample Space Reducing (SSR) processes are simple stochastic processes that offer a new route to understand scaling in path-dependent processes. Here we define a cascading process that generalises the recently defined SSR processes and is able to produce power laws with arbitrary exponents. We demonstrate analytically that the frequency distributions of states are power laws with exponents that coincide with the multiplication parameter of the cascading process. In addition, we show that imposing energy conservation in SSR cascades allows us to recover Fermi’s classic result on the energy spectrum of cosmic rays, with the universal exponent −2, which is independent of the multiplication parameter of the cascade. Applications of the proposed process include fragmentation processes or directed cascading diffusion on networks, such as rumour or epidemic spreading.