TY - JOUR
T1 - Hierarchy in social organization
AU - Buldyrev, S. V.
AU - Dokholyan, Nikolay
AU - Erramilli, S.
AU - Hong, M.
AU - Kim, J. Y.
AU - Malescio, G.
AU - Stanley, H. E.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank M. Batty, R.S. Dokholyan, G. Jacobson, H.A. Makse, and S. Redner for interesting and stimulating discussions. We thank NSF for support. N.V.D. is supported by NIH postdoctoral fellowship (GM20251-01).
PY - 2003/12/15
Y1 - 2003/12/15
N2 - We find that area and population distributions of nations follow an inverse power-law, as is known for cities, but with a different exponent. To interpret this result, we develop a growth model based on the geometrical properties of partitioning of the plane. The substantial agreement between the model and the actual nation distributions motivates the hypothesis that the distribution of aggregates of organisms is related to land partitioning. To test this hypothesis we follow the development of bacterial colonies of Escherichia coli, which, compared to humans, are on a completely different level of complexity. We find that the distributions of E. coli colonies follow an inverse power law with exponent similar to that of nations.
AB - We find that area and population distributions of nations follow an inverse power-law, as is known for cities, but with a different exponent. To interpret this result, we develop a growth model based on the geometrical properties of partitioning of the plane. The substantial agreement between the model and the actual nation distributions motivates the hypothesis that the distribution of aggregates of organisms is related to land partitioning. To test this hypothesis we follow the development of bacterial colonies of Escherichia coli, which, compared to humans, are on a completely different level of complexity. We find that the distributions of E. coli colonies follow an inverse power law with exponent similar to that of nations.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.physa.2003.09.041
DO - 10.1016/j.physa.2003.09.041
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0242691708
SN - 0378-4371
VL - 330
SP - 653
EP - 659
JO - Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications
JF - Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications
IS - 3-4
ER -