Abstract
We formulate a general model for the growth of scale-free networks under filtering information conditions—that is, when the nodes can process information about only a subset of the existing nodes in the network. We find that the distribution of the number of incoming links to a node follows a universal scaling form, i.e., that it decays as a power law with an exponential truncation controlled not only by the system size but also by a feature not previously considered, the subset of the network “accessible” to the node. We test our model with empirical data for the World Wide Web and find agreement.
- Received 18 October 2001
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.138701
©2002 American Physical Society