Subgraphs in preferential attachment models

We consider subgraph counts in general preferential attachment models with power-law degree exponent $\tau>2$. For all subgraphs $H$, we find the scaling of the expected number of subgraphs as a power of the number of vertices. We prove our results on the expected number of subgraphs by defining an optimization problem that finds the optimal subgraph structure in terms of the indices of the vertices that together span it and by using the representation of the preferential attachment model as a P\'olya urn model

Degree correlations in scale-free null models

We study the average nearest neighbor degree $a(k)$ of vertices with degree $k$. In many real-world networks with power-law degree distribution $a(k)$ falls off in $k$, a property ascribed to the constraint that any two vertices are connected by at most one edge. We show that $a(k)$ indeed decays in $k$ in three simple random graph null models with power-law degrees: the erased configuration model, the rank-1 inhomogeneous random graph and the hyperbolic random graph. We consider the large-network limit when the number of nodes $n$ tends to infinity. We find for all three null models that $a(k)$ starts to decay beyond $n^{(\tau-2)/(\tau-1)}$ and then settles on a power law $a(k)\sim k^{\tau-3}$, with $\tau$ the degree exponent.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure

Predicting the long-term citation impact of recent publications

A fundamental problem in citation analysis is the prediction of the long-term citation impact of recent publications. We propose a model to predict a probability distribution for the future number of citations of a publication. Two predictors are used: The impact factor of the journal in which a publication has appeared and the number of citations a publication has received one year after its appearance. The proposed model is based on quantile regression. We employ the model to predict the future number of citations of a large set of publications in the field of physics. Our analysis shows that both predictors (i.e., impact factor and early citations) contribute to the accurate prediction of long-term citation impact. We also analytically study the behavior of the quantile regression coefficients for high quantiles of the distribution of citations. This is done by linking the quantile regression approach to a quantile estimation technique from extreme value theory. Our work provides insight into the influence of the impact factor and early citations on the long-term citation impact of a publication, and it takes a step toward a methodology that can be used to assess research institutions based on their most recently published work.Comment: 17 pages, 17 figure

Networks with communities and clustering

Groepen binnen netwerken zorgen soms toch voor snellere verspreidin

Switch chain mixing times through triangle counts

Sampling uniform simple graphs with power-law degree distributions with degree exponent $\tau\in(2,3)$ is a non-trivial problem. We propose a method to sample uniform simple graphs that uses a constrained version of the configuration model together with a Markov Chain switching method. We test the convergence of this algorithm numerically in the context of the presence of small subgraphs. We then compare the number of triangles in uniform random graphs with the number of triangles in the erased configuration model. Using simulations and heuristic arguments, we conjecture that the number of triangles in the erased configuration model is larger than the number of triangles in the uniform random graph, provided that the graph is sufficiently large.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures in the main article. 2 pages, 2 figures in the supplementary materia

Degree correlations in scale-free null models

We study the average nearest neighbor degree $a(k)$ of vertices with degree $k$. In many real-world networks with power-law degree distribution $a(k)$ falls off in $k$, a property ascribed to the constraint that any two vertices are connected by at most one edge. We show that $a(k)$ indeed decays in $k$ in three simple random graph null models with power-law degrees: the erased configuration model, the rank-1 inhomogeneous random graph and the hyperbolic random graph. We consider the large-network limit when the number of nodes $n$ tends to infinity. We find for all three null models that $a(k)$ starts to decay beyond $n^{(\tau-2)/(\tau-1)}$ and then settles on a power law $a(k)\sim k^{\tau-3}$, with $\tau$ the degree exponent

Variational principle for scale-free network motifs

For scale-free networks with degrees following a power law with an exponent $\tau\in(2,3)$, the structures of motifs (small subgraphs) are not yet well understood. We introduce a method designed to identify the dominant structure of any given motif as the solution of an optimization problem. The unique optimizer describes the degrees of the vertices that together span the most likely motif, resulting in explicit asymptotic formulas for the motif count and its fluctuations. We then classify all motifs into two categories: motifs with small and large fluctuations

Closure coefficients in scale-free complex networks

The formation of triangles in complex networks is an important network property that has received tremendous attention. The formation of triangles is often studied through the clustering coefficient. The closure coefficient or transitivity is another method to measure triadic closure. This statistic measures clustering from the head node of a triangle (instead of from the center node, as in the often studied clustering coefficient). We perform a first exploratory analysis of the behavior of the local closure coefficient in two random graph models that create simple networks with power-law degrees: the hidden-variable model and the hyperbolic random graph. We show that the closure coefficient behaves significantly different in these simple random graph models than in the previously studied multigraph models. We also relate the closure coefficient of high-degree vertices to the clustering coefficient and the average nearest neighbor degree