Emergent scale-free networks.
PNAS Nexus
; 3(7): pgae236, 2024 Jul.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38966012
ABSTRACT
Many complex systems-from the Internet to social, biological, and communication networks-are thought to exhibit scale-free structure. However, prevailing explanations require that networks grow over time, an assumption that fails in some real-world settings. Here, we explain how scale-free structure can emerge without growth through network self-organization. Beginning with an arbitrary network, we allow connections to detach from random nodes and then reconnect under a mixture of preferential and random attachment. While the numbers of nodes and edges remain fixed, the degree distribution evolves toward a power-law with an exponent γ = 1 + 1 p that depends only on the proportion p of preferential (rather than random) attachment. Applying our model to several real networks, we infer p directly from data and predict the relationship between network size and degree heterogeneity. Together, these results establish how scale-free structure can arise in networks of constant size and density, with broad implications for the structure and function of complex systems.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
PNAS Nexus
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States
Country of publication:
United kingdom