Scale free networks by preferential depletion

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that preferential depletion, not just preferential attachment, can produce scale-free networks with degree exponents less than two, aligning well with biological network data.

Contribution

It introduces a novel network formation mechanism based on preferential depletion, expanding understanding of scale-free network generation.

Findings

Preferential depletion results in scale-free networks with degree exponents around 5/3.

The model aligns with experimental data from biological networks.

Key network properties like clustering and path length are analyzed.

Abstract

We show that not only preferential attachment but also preferential depletion leads to scale-free networks. The resulting degree distribution exponents is typically less than two (5/3) as opposed to the case of the growth models studied before where the exponents are larger. Our approach applies in particular to biological networks where in fact we find interesting agreement with experimental measurements. We investigate the most important properties characterizing these networks, as the cluster size distribution, the average shortest path and the clustering coefficient.