DISCERNING DIFFERENCES AMONG ANOMALOUSLY WANDERING DIRECTED POLYMERS

We contrast the effects of uncorrelated power-law noise and linearly c orrelated Gaussian noise upon the anomalous wandering of directed poly mers in random media. In the first instance, we explore the role of th e noise on the morphology of the ultrametric tree structure of the ens emble of locally optimal paths, and then, motivated by the work of Zha ng [Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 2125 (1987)] and more recently by Perlsman an d Schwartz [Europhys. Lett. 17, 11 (1992)], provide strong evidence fo r the universality of the model's river basin patterns. Lastly, we dis cuss those precise features of the positional and energy fluctuations that could permit a resourceful experimentalist to discern the noise d istribution underlying anomalous roughening recently observed in fire fronts, bacterial growth, and fluid flow through porous media.