Abstract
We investigate in detail a recent model of colliding mobile agents
M.C. Gonzalez, P.G. Lind, H.J. Herrmann, Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 (2006)
088702. cond-mat/0602091, used as an alternative approach for
constructing evolving networks of interactions formed by collisions
governed by suitable dynamical rules. The system of mobile agents
evolves towards a quasi-stationary state which is, apart from small
fluctuations, well characterized by the density of the system and the
residence time of the agents. The residence time defines a collision
rate, and by varying this collision rate, the system percolates at a
critical value, with the emergence of a giant cluster whose critical
exponents are the ones of two-dimensional percolation. Further, the
degree and clustering coefficient distributions, and the average path
length, show that the network associated with such a system presents
non-trivial features which, depending on the collision rules, enables
one not only to recover the main properties of standard networks, such
as exponential, random and scale-free networks, but also to obtain other
topological structures. To illustrate, we show a specific example where
the obtained structure has topological features which characterize the
structure and evolution of social networks accurately in different
contexts, ranging from networks of acquaintances to networks of sexual
contacts. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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