Percolation in Hierarchical Scale-Free Nets

Abstract

We study the percolation phase transition in hierarchical scale-free nets. Depending on the method of construction, the nets can be fractal or small-world (the diameter grows either algebraically or logarithmically with the net size), assortative or disassortative (a measure of the tendency of like-degree nodes to be connected to one another), or possess various degrees of clustering. The percolation phase transition can be analyzed exactly in all these cases, due to the self-similar structure of the hierarchical nets. We find different types of criticality, illustrating the crucial effect of other structural properties besides the scale-free degree distribution of the nets.