The Truth about Power Laws: Theory and Reality

In search of many social and economical systems, it is found that node strength distribution as well as degree distribution demonstrate the behavior of power-law with droop-head and heavy-tail. We present a new model for the growth of weighted networks considering the connection of nodes with low strengths. Numerical simulations indicate that this network model yields three power-law distributions of the node degrees, node strengths and connection weights. Particularly, the d...

The availability of large scale streaming network data has reinforced the ubiquity of power-law distributions in observations and enabled precision measurements of the distribution parameters. The increased accuracy of these measurements allows new underlying generative network models to be explored. The preferential attachment model is a natural starting point for these models. This work adds additional model components to account for observed phenomena in the distributions....

The focus of this work is on estimation of the in-degree distribution in directed networks from sampling network nodes or edges. A number of sampling schemes are considered, including random sampling with and without replacement, and several approaches based on random walks with possible jumps. When sampling nodes, it is assumed that only the out-edges of that node are visible, that is, the in-degree of that node is not observed. The suggested estimation of the in-degree dist...

A projective network model is a model that enables predictions to be made based on a subsample of the network data, with the predictions remaining unchanged if a larger sample is taken into consideration. An exchangeable model is a model that does not depend on the order in which nodes are sampled. Despite a large variety of non-equilibrium (growing) and equilibrium (static) sparse complex network models that are widely used in network science, how to reconcile sparseness (co...

We propose a possible relation between complex networks and gravity. Our guide in our proposal is the power-law distribution of the node degree in network theory and the information approach to gravity. The established bridge may allow us to carry geometric mathematical structures, which are considered in gravitational theories, to probabilistic aspects studied in the framework of complex networks and vice versa.

Although the origin of the fat-tail characteristic of the degree distribution in complex networks has been extensively researched, the underlying cause of the degree distribution characteristic across the complete range of degrees remains obscure. Here, we propose an evolution model that incorporates only two factors: the node's weight, reflecting its innate attractiveness (nature), and the node's degree, reflecting the external influences (nurture). The proposed model provid...

There is great interest in predicting rare and extreme events in complex systems, and in particular, understanding the role of network topology in facilitating such events. In this work, we show that degree dispersion -- the fact that the number of local connections in networks varies broadly -- increases the probability of large, rare fluctuations in population networks generically. We perform explicit calculations for two canonical and distinct classes of rare events: netwo...

The gap between data production and user ability to access, compute and produce meaningful results calls for tools that address the challenges associated with big data volume, velocity and variety. One of the key hurdles is the inability to methodically remove expected or uninteresting elements from large data sets. This difficulty often wastes valuable researcher and computational time by expending resources on uninteresting parts of data. Social sensors, or sensors which pr...

Power law distribution seems to be an important characteristic of web graphs. Several existing web graph models generate power law graphs by adding new vertices and non-uniform edge connectivities to existing graphs. Researchers have conjectured that preferential connectivity and incremental growth are both required for the power law distribution. In this paper, we propose a different web graph model with power law distribution that does not require incremental growth. We als...

A power law degree distribution is established for a graph evolution model based on the graph class of k-trees. This k-tree-based graph process can be viewed as an idealized model that captures some characteristics of the preferential attachment and copying mechanisms that existing evolving graph processes fail to model due to technical obstacles. The result also serves as a further cautionary note reinforcing the point of view that a power law degree distribution should not ...