<p>I just finished <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert-L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3_Barab%C3%A1si" rel="nofollow">Albert-László Barabási</a>'s popular science book "<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=AR5rPgAACAAJ&amp;dq" rel="nofollow">Bursts: The Hidden Pattern Behind Everything We Do</a>" which describes the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9vy_flight" rel="nofollow">Lévy flight</a> as an ideal strategy for finding scarce resources in an environment. I immediately wondered whether anyone had studied them as a search algorithm. I could imagine them being more or less useful depending on the makeup of the search space. Have there been any papers on the subject?</p>

CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-11-16T03:25:53.927Z
OP has not responded to the comments, so I am voting to close as "not a real question".
Kaveh
CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-11-16T18:44:46.083Z
I have nothing to add to the comments. They're right. This doesn't belong here.
James A. Rosen
CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-11-14T03:48:16.763Z
Have you tried Google: "Lévy flight" search algorithm
Kaveh
CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-11-14T04:07:58.703Z
Users are expected to try to answer their questions themselves (i.e. *do their part*) before posting them here (i.e. *expecting help from others*), and that includes searching using Google, Wikipedia, and [Google Scholar](http://scholar.google.com), ... . If you have searched and did not find anything please state it in your question, if you have found some result but are looking for more please provide any related article that you have found. Please also provide motivation on why you are interested in the question.
Kaveh
CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-11-14T07:42:42.610Z
I haven't read Barabási's book.  Does he formally prove that Lévy flights are optimal for some class of search problems in some model?  If so, what's the class of problems and what's the model?
arnab
CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-11-14T09:44:11.947Z
@arnab: It seems to be a *pop-sci* book, I don't think he proves anything in it. Take a look at its reviews on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/Bursts-Hidden-Pattern-Behind-Everything/dp/0525951601). I think we don't want people start posting questions like this simply based on an idea they have read in a pop-sci book, so I am going to vote to close as "not a real question" if OP does provide motivation.
Kaveh
CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-11-14T13:14:36.117Z
@James, to improve your question, you might start by explaining what a Lévy flight is in your question (perhaps just copying from the Wikipedia page you linked, perhaps in your own words), take a stab at why you think they might be interesting compared to other search alternatives that you're aware of and explain in further detail why the question, as a whole, excites you. I think you might have an interesting question at the core of what you're asking, but you need to give a little bit more in the question itself (and make it a bit more self-contained; not all of us have read the same book!).
Daniel Apon
CC BY-SA 2.5
2010-11-14T15:38:25.073Z
Not to get too meta here, but I'm glad he posed the question, because I did a search myself, and found [this biologically-inspired optimizaton algorithm](http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1003/1003.1594v1.pdf) based on the Levy flight of cuckoo birds.  (Reminds me of ant colony optimization algorithms.)  I haven't read the paper yet, but the idea made me smile.
Aaron Sterling
<ds.algorithms><randomized-algorithms>
What literature exists on Lévy flights for computational search?
James A. Rosen
# What literature exists on Lévy flights for computational search?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2010-11-14)

I just finished [Albert-László Barabási](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert-L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3_Barab%C3%A1si)'s popular science book "[Bursts: The Hidden Pattern Behind Everything We Do](http://books.google.com/books?id=AR5rPgAACAAJ&dq)" which describes the [Lévy flight](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9vy_flight) as an ideal strategy for finding scarce resources in an environment. I immediately wondered whether anyone had studied them as a search algorithm. I could imagine them being more or less useful depending on the makeup of the search space. Have there been any papers on the subject?

**Tags:** ds.algorithms, randomized-algorithms

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Have you tried Google: "Lévy flight" search algorithm  
> **username_1**: Users are expected to try to answer their questions themselves (i.e. *do their part*) before posting them here (i.e. *expecting help from others*), and that includes searching using Google, Wikipedia, and [Google Scholar](http://scholar.google.com), ... . If you have searched and did not find anything please state it in your question, if you have found some result but are looking for more please provide any related article that you have found. Please also provide motivation on why you are interested in the question.  
> **username_2**: I haven't read Barabási's book.  Does he formally prove that Lévy flights are optimal for some class of search problems in some model?  If so, what's the class of problems and what's the model?  
> **username_1**: @username_2: It seems to be a *pop-sci* book, I don't think he proves anything in it. Take a look at its reviews on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/Bursts-Hidden-Pattern-Behind-Everything/dp/0525951601). I think we don't want people start posting questions like this simply based on an idea they have read in a pop-sci book, so I am going to vote to close as "not a real question" if OP does provide motivation.  
> **username_3**: @James, to improve your question, you might start by explaining what a Lévy flight is in your question (perhaps just copying from the Wikipedia page you linked, perhaps in your own words), take a stab at why you think they might be interesting compared to other search alternatives that you're aware of and explain in further detail why the question, as a whole, excites you. I think you might have an interesting question at the core of what you're asking, but you need to give a little bit more in the question itself (and make it a bit more self-contained; not all of us have read the same book!).  
> **username_4**: Not to get too meta here, but I'm glad he posed the question, because I did a search myself, and found [this biologically-inspired optimizaton algorithm](http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/1003/1003.1594v1.pdf) based on the Levy flight of cuckoo birds.  (Reminds me of ant colony optimization algorithms.)  I haven't read the paper yet, but the idea made me smile.  
> **username_1**: OP has not responded to the comments, so I am voting to close as "not a real question".  
> **username_0**: I have nothing to add to the comments. They're right. This doesn't belong here.  

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## 0 answers

