The Diameter of a Scale-Free Random Graph

  • Authors:
  • Bélaa Bollobás;Oliver Riordan

  • Affiliations:
  • University of Memphis, Department of Mathematical Sciences, USA and Trinity College, Cambridge CB2 1TQ, UK;Trinity College, Department of Mathematical Sciences, UK

  • Venue:
  • Combinatorica
  • Year:
  • 2004

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Abstract

We consider a random graph process in which vertices are added to the graph one at a time and joined to a fixed number m of earlier vertices, where each earlier vertex is chosen with probability proportional to its degree. This process was introduced by Barabási and Albert [3], as a simple model of the growth of real-world graphs such as the world-wide web. Computer experiments presented by Barabási, Albert and Jeong [1,5] and heuristic arguments given by Newman, Strogatz and Watts [23] suggest that after n steps the resulting graph should have diameter approximately logn. We show that while this holds for m=1, for m≥2 the diameter is asymptotically log n/log logn.