Absorbing states and elastic interfaces in random media: two equivalent descriptions of self-organized criticality

We elucidate a long-standing puzzle about the nonequilibrium universality classes describing self-organized criticality in sandpile models. We show that depinning transitions of linear interfaces in random media and absorbing phase transitions (with a conserved nondiffusive field) are two equivalent languages to describe sandpile criticality. This is so despite the fact that local roughening properties can be radically different in the two pictures, as explained here. Experimental implications of our work as well as promising paths for future theoretical investigations are also discussed.