On a flow of substance in a channel of network that contains a main arm and two branches

TL;DR

This paper models the stationary flow of a substance in a three-armed network channel, deriving statistical distributions that include well-known long-tail distributions, with applications in technological systems and human migration analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a mathematical framework for the stationary distribution of substance in a network channel with three arms, linking it to known long-tail distributions and discussing practical applications.

Findings

Distributions include Waring, Yule-Simon, and Zipf distributions.

Analytical relationships for substance distribution in network nodes.

Potential applications in technological systems and human migration modeling.

Abstract

We study the motion of a substance in a channel that is part of a network. The channel has 3 arms and consists of nodes of the network and edges that connect the nodes and form ways for motion of the substance. Stationary regime of the flow of the substance in the channel is discussed and statistical distributions for the amount of substance in the nodes of the channel are obtained. These distributions for each of the three arms of the channel contain as particular case famous long-tail distributions such as Waring distribution, Yule-Simon distribution and Zipf distribution. The obtained results are discussed from the point of view of technological applications of the model (e.g., the motion of the substance is considered to happen in a complex technological system and the obtained analytical relationships for the distribution of the substance in the nodes of the channel represents the distribution of the substance in the corresponding cells of the technological chains). A possible application of the obtained results for description of human migration in migration channels is discussed too.