On the formation of structure in growing networks

Based on the formation of triad junctions, the mechanism proposed in this paper generates networks that exhibit extended rather than single power law behavior. Triad formation guarantees strong neighborhood clustering and community-level characteristics as the network size grows to infinity. The asymptotic behavior is of interest in the study of directed networks in which (i) the formation of links cannot be described according to the principle of preferential attachment, (ii) the in-degree distribution fits a power law for nodes with a high degree and an exponential form otherwise, (iii) clustering properties emerge at multiple scales and depend on both the number of links that newly added nodes establish and the probability of forming triads, and (iv) groups of nodes form modules that feature fewer links to the rest of the nodes. (paper)