Modularity of preferential attachment graphs

Katarzyna Rybarczyk, Małgorzata Sulkowska

Published 2025-01-12Version 1

Modularity is a graph parameter measuring how clearly the set of graph vertices may be partitioned into subsets of high edge density. It indicates the presence of community structure in the graph. We study its value for a random preferential attachment model $G_n^h$ introduced by Barab\'asi and Albert in 1999. A graph $G_n^h$ is created from some finite starting graph by adding new vertices one by one. A new vertex always connects to $h\geq1$ already existing vertices and those are chosen with probability proportional to their current degrees. We prove that modularity of $G_n^h$ is with high probability upper bounded by a function tending to $0$ with $h$ tending to infinity. This resolves the conjecture of Prokhorenkova, Pralat and Raigorodskii from 2016. As a byproduct we obtain novel concentration results for the volume and the edge density parameters of subsets of $G_n^h$.