Different thresholds of bond percolation in scale-free networks with identical degree sequence

Zhongzhi Zhang, Shuigeng Zhou, Tao Zou, Lichao Chen, Jihong Guan

Published 2008-11-06, updated 2009-03-14Version 2

Generally, the threshold of percolation in complex networks depends on the underlying structural characterization. However, what topological property plays a predominant role is still unknown, despite the speculation of some authors that degree distribution is a key ingredient. The purpose of this paper is to show that power-law degree distribution itself is not sufficient to characterize the threshold of bond percolation in scale-free networks. To achieve this goal, we first propose a family of scale-free networks with the same degree sequence and obtain by analytical or numerical means several topological features of the networks. Then, by making use of the renormalization group technique we determine the threshold of bond percolation in our networks. We find an existence of non-zero thresholds and demonstrate that these thresholds can be quite different, which implies that power-law degree distribution does not suffice to characterize the percolation threshold in scale-free networks.