Search⌘ K
AI Features

Scale-Free Networks

Explore the characteristics of scale-free networks, including their power-law degree distribution, growth process, and preferential attachment. Understand how the Barabási-Albert model generates such networks and use Python's NetworkX to simulate and analyze them.

Scale-free networks

A scale-free network is a network that has the characteristic of having power-law distribution for the degree.

A power law is mathematically defined as:

This means that we have hubs, a small number of nodes that are connected to a lot of other nodes, therefore having a large degree, and lots of smaller nodes that are connected to few nodes, therefore having a small degree.

Here is an example of a power-law distribution for the degree, where P(k)P(k)is the probability of a random node having a degree k:k: ...