Networks Emerging from the Competition of Pullulation and Decrepitude

In real-world network evolution, the aging effect is universal. We propose a microscopic model for aging networks, which suggests that the activity of a vertex is the result of the competition of two factors: pullulation and decrepitude. By incorporating the pullulation factor into previous models of aging networks, both the global and individual aging effect curves in our model are single peaked, which agrees with the empirical data well. This model can generate networks with scale-free degree distribution, large clustering coefficient and small average distance when the decrepitude intensity is small and the network size not very large. The results of our model show that pullulation may be one of the most important factors affecting the structure and function of aging networks and should not be neglected at all.