The Evolving Bipartite Network and Semi-Bipartite Network Models with Adjustable Scale and Hybrid Attachment Mechanisms

Abstract

The bipartite graph structure exists in the connections of many objects in the real world, and the evolving modeling is a good method to describe and understand the generation and evolution within various real complex networks. Previous bipartite models were proposed to mostly explain the principle of attachments, and ignored the diverse growth speed of nodes of sets in different bipartite networks. In this paper, we propose an evolving bipartite network model with adjustable node scale and hybrid attachment mechanisms, which uses different probability parameters to control the scale of two disjoint sets of nodes and the preference strength of hybrid attachment respectively. The results show that the degree distribution of single set in the proposed model follows a shifted power-law distribution when parameter r and s are not equal to 0, or exponential distribution when r or s is equal to 0. Furthermore, we extend the previous model to a semi-bipartite network model, which embeds more user association information into the internal network, so that the model is capable of carrying and revealing more deep information of each user in the network. The simulation results of two models are in good agreement with the empirical data, which verifies that the models have a good performance on real networks from the perspective of degree distribution. We believe these two models are valuable for an explanation of the origin and growth of bipartite systems that truly exist.