title: Dynamical robustness of Lévy search strategies.
abstract: We study the role of dynamical constraints in the general problem of finding the best statistical strategy for random searching when the targets can be detected only in the limited vicinity of the searcher. We find that the optimal search strategy depends strongly on the delay time tau during which a previously visited site becomes unavailable. We also find that the optimal search strategy is always described for large step lengths l by a power-law distribution P(l) approximately l(-mu), with 1<mu(tau)</=2. Our findings appear to remain valid even if arbitrary energy costs of locomotion are considered.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Física Teórica e Computacional, Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, 50670-901, Recife-PE, Brazil.
authors.forename: E P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Raposo
authors.forename: Sergey V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Buldyrev
authors.forename: M G E
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: da Luz
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.forename: H Eugene
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Stanley
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Viswanathan
mesh_terms: D005247:Feeding Behavior; D008124:Locomotion; D008954:Models, Biological; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D016012:Poisson Distribution