Critical behavior of the contact process in annealed scale-free networks

Critical behavior of the contact process is studied in annealed scale-free networks by mapping it on the random walk problem. We obtain the analytic results for the critical scaling, using the event-driven dynamics approach. These results are confirmed by numerical simulations. The disorder fluctuation induced by the sampling disorder in annealed networks is also explored. Finally, we discuss over the discrepancy of the finite-size-scaling theory in annealed and quenched networks in spirit of the droplet size scale and the linking disorder fluctuation.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure

Comment on "Non-Mean-Field Behavior of the Contact Process on Scale-Free Networks"

Recently, Castellano and Pastor-Satorras [1] utilized the finite size scaling (FSS) theory to analyze simulation data for the contact process (CP) on scale-free networks (SFNs) and claimed that its absorbing critical behavior is not consistent with the mean-field (MF) prediction. Furthermore, they pointed out large density fluctuations at highly connected vertices as a possible origin for non-MF critical behavior. In this Comment, we propose a scaling theory for relative density fluctuations in the spirit of the MF theory, which turns out to explain simulation data perfectly well. We also measure the value of the critical density decay exponent, which agrees well with the MF prediction. Our results strongly support that the CP on SFNs still exhibits a MF-type critical behavior.Comment: 1 page, 2 figures, typos are correcte