Impact of sequential disorder on the scaling behavior of airplane boarding time

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the disorder in seat sequence affects the scaling behavior of airplane boarding time, revealing new scaling exponents based on disorder localization.

Contribution

It provides a systematic analysis of finite-size effects and introduces a comprehensive view of how sequential disorder influences boarding time scaling.

Findings

Scaling behavior depends on seat column number

Localized disorder leads to new scaling exponents

Finite-size effects are systematically characterized

Abstract

Airplane boarding process is an example where disorder properties of the system are relevant to the emergence of universality classes. Based on a simple model, we present a systematic analysis of finite-size effects in boarding time, and propose a comprehensive view of the role of sequential disorder in the scaling behavior of boarding time against the plane size. Using numerical simulations and mathematical arguments, we find how the scaling behavior depends on the number of seat columns and the range of sequential disorder. Our results show that new scaling exponents can arise as disorder is localized to varying extents.