Nonpreferential Attachment Leads to Scale-Free or Not

Abstract

Many studies have considered the preferential attachment mechanism to cause scale-free networks. On the contrary, a network evolution model based on nonpreferential attachment is proposed to explain some non-scale-free network, and the existence of a stable degree distribution of the model is theoretically proven. Three methods are suggested to estimate the distribution. The model’s significance shows that preferential attachment is not the only mechanism of tail power-law distribution, which gives a reasonable explanation to non-scale-free phenomenon. Our results provide a new train of thought for understanding the degree distribution of network.