Dynamics in affinity-weighted preferential attachment networks (Q2202316)

This paper considers an affinity weighted preferential attachment model \(G=(V(t),E(t))\) with two groups represented by the set \(N=\{1,2\}\). The type of a node \(u\in V(t)\) is defined by a function \(f(u)\in N\). Let \(k_u(t)\) represent the number of neighbors of node \(u\) and \(k'_u(t)\le k_u(t)\) the number of neighbors of type \(f(u)\). The homophily of a node \(u\) at time \(t\) is \(h_u(t)=k'_u(t)/k_u(t)\). The homophily of a group \(i\in N\) is denoted by \(h_i(t)=c_{ij}(t)/\sum_{j\in N}c_{ij}(t)\), where \(c_{ij}(t)\) is the number of edges between nodes of type \(i\) and \(j\). The paper characterizes dynamics and limit behavior of some metrics such as node homophily, group homophily, and modularity. The paper also compares the model dynamics with the degree rank of the minority group of the collaboration network through theoretical and empirical analysis and simulations.