A simple asymmetric evolving random network

Abstract

We introduce a new oriented evolving graph model inspired by biological networks. A node is added at each time step and is connected to the rest of the graph by random oriented edges emerging from older nodes. This leads to a statistical asymmetry between incoming and outgoing edges. We show that the model exhibits a percolation transition and discuss its universality. Below the threshold, the distribution of component sizes decreases algebraically with a continuously varying exponent depending on the average connectivity. We prove that the transition is of infinite order by deriving the exact asymptotic formula for the size of the giant component close to the threshold. We also present a thorough analysis of aging properties. We compute local-in-time profiles for the components of finite size and for the giant component, showing in particular that the giant component is always dense among the oldest nodes but invades only an exponentially small fraction of the young nodes close to the threshold.