Stability of the BA Network: a New Approach to Rigorous Proof

We propose a new approach to rigorously prove the existence of the steady-state degree distribution for the BA network. The approach is based on a vector Markov chain of vertex numbers in the network evolving process. This framework provides a rigorous theoretical basis for the rate equation approach which has been widely applied to many problems in the field of complex networks, e.g., epidemic spreading and dynamic synchronization.