Asymptotic distribution of the global clustering coefficient in a random annulus graph

Abstract

The global clustering coefficient is an effective measure for analyzing and comparing the structures of complex networks. The random annulus graph is a modified version of the well-known Erd\H{o}s-R\'{e}nyi random graph. It has been recently proposed in modeling network communities. This paper investigates the asymptotic distribution of the global clustering coefficient in a random annulus graph. It is demonstrated that the standardized global clustering coefficient converges in law to the standard normal distribution. The result is established using the asymptotic theory of degenerate U-statistics with a sample-size dependent kernel. As far as we know, this method is different from established approaches for deriving asymptotic distributions of network statistics. Moreover, we get the explicit expression of the limit of the global clustering coefficient.