We discuss merging-and-creation as a self-organizing process for scale-free
topologies in networks. Three power-law classes characterized by the power-law
exponents 3/2, 2 and 5/2 are identified and the process is generalized to
networks. In the network context the merging can be viewed as a consequence of
optimization related to more efficient signaling.Comment: Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, In Pres