Effect of node deleting on network structure

The ever-increasing knowledge of the structure of various real-world networks has uncovered their complex multi-mechanism -governed evolution processes. Therefore, a better understanding of the structure and evolution of these networked complex systems requires us to describe such processes in a more detailed and realistic manner. In this paper, we introduce a new type of network growth rule which comprises addition and deletion of nodes, and propose an evolving network model to investigate the effect of node deleting on network structure. It is found that, with the introduction of node deleting, network structure is significantly transformed. In particular, degree distribution of the network undergoes a transition from scale-free to exponential forms as the intensity of node deleting increases. At the same time, nontrivial disassortative degree correlation develops spontaneously as a natural result of network evolution in the model. We also demonstrate that node deleting introduced in the model does not destroy the connectedness of a growing network so long as the increasing rate of edges is not excessively small. In addition, it is found that node deleting will weaken but not eliminate the small-world effect of a growing network, and generally it will decrease the clustering coefficient in a network. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.