The "Cameo Principle" and the Origin of Scale-Free Graphs in Social Networks

Abstract

We formulate a simple edge generation rule based on an inverse like mass action principle for random graphs over a structured vertex set. We show that under very weak assumptions on the structure generating distribution we obtain a scale free distribution for the degree. We furthermore introduce and study a "my friends are your friends" local search principle which makes the clustering coefficient large.Comment: 17 pages, Late