Distribution of sizes for the small clusters in percolation models

guillefix 4th November 2016 at 2:43pm

A quantity of interesting in Percolation theory is the distribution of sizes for the small clusters in percolation models.

This can be quantified by the total number of clusters of size ss, nsn_s. Sometimes one works with ns/Nn_s/N instead, to eliminate the scaling with NN that would make nsn_s \rightarrow \infty as NN \rightarrow \infty.

One can also work with the probability that a random node belongs to a cluster of size ss, which can be easily seen to be πs=snsN=# of nodes in clusters of size stotal # of nodes\pi_s = \frac{s n_s}{N} = \frac{\#\text{ of nodes in clusters of size }s}{\text{total }\#\text{ of nodes}}. This is clearly the probability of picking a node inside a cluster of size ss given a particular network configuration. In the case of Percolation on random graphs and networks, it's also the probability that a random network configuration (following the appropriate probability distribution defining the network ensemble) makes a particular chosen node be in a cluster of size ss. This is because the two operations are statistically independent.

πs\pi_s can be shown to decrease exponentially with s in the subcritical regime, and it decays more slowly in the supercritical regime. (see here). At the critical point, the cluster size follows a power law distribution (as do for instance avalanche sizes in the sandpile model at criticality).