title: Universal behavior of optimal paths in weighted networks with general disorder.
abstract: We study the statistics of the optimal path in both random and scale-free networks, where weights are taken from a general distribution P(w). We find that different types of disorder lead to the same universal behavior. Specifically, we find that a single parameter (S defined as AL(-1/v) for d-dimensional lattices, and S defined as AN(-1/3) for random networks) determines the distributions of the optimal path length, including both strong and weak disorder regimes. Here v is the percolation connectivity exponent, and A depends on the percolation threshold and P(w). We show that for a uniform P(w), Poisson or Gaussian, the crossover from weak to strong does not occur, and only weak disorder exists.
authors.affiliation: Center for Polymer Studies, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
authors.forename: Yiping
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: López
authors.forename: Shlomo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Havlin
authors.forename: H Eugene
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Stanley