English

From sparse to dense and from assortative to disassortative in online social networks

Physics and Society 2014-05-07 v2 Statistical Mechanics Social and Information Networks

Abstract

Inspired by the analysis of several empirical online social networks, we propose a simple reaction-diffusion-like coevolving model, in which individuals are activated to create links based on their states, influenced by local dynamics and their own intention. It is shown that the model can reproduce the remarkable properties observed in empirical online social networks; in particular, the assortative coefficients are neutral or negative, and the power law exponents are smaller than 2. Moreover, we demonstrate that, under appropriate conditions, the model network naturally makes transition(s) from assortative to disassortative, and from sparse to dense in their characteristics. The model is useful in understanding the formation and evolution of online social networks.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1309.7455,
  title  = {From sparse to dense and from assortative to disassortative in online social networks},
  author = {Menghui Li and Shuguang Guan and Chensheng Wu and Xiaofeng Gong and Kun Li and Jinshan Wu and Zengru Di and Choy-Heng Lai},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1309.7455},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

10 pages, 7 figures and 2 tables