Scale-Free Networks Generated By Random Walkers

Abstract

We present a simple mechanism for generating undirected scale-free networks using random walkers, where the network growth is determined by choosing parent vertices by sequential random walks. We show that this mechanism produces scale-free networks with degree exponent gamma=3 and clustering coefficients depending on random walk length. The mechanism can be interpreted in terms of preferential attachment without explicit knowledge of node degrees.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure