Eur. Phys. J. B (2013) 86: 38
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2012-30802-x

Regular Article

Scale-free homophilic network

¹ Departamento de Física Teórica e Experimental, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, 59072-970 Natal-RN, Brazil
² Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal do Ceará, 60451-970 Fortaleza-CE, Brazil
³ Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal de Alagoas, 57072-970 Maceió-AL, Brazil

^a e-mail: maurisf7@gmail.com
^b e-mail: alvesmendes.g@gmail.com

Received: 3 September 2012
Received in final form: 4 October 2012
Published online: 6 February 2013

Abstract

An important aspect governing the growth of complex networks is homophily, which is defined as the tendency of sites to link with others which are similar to themselves. Here, we modify the preferential attachment from Barabási-Albert model by including a homophilic term. Comparisons are made with the Barabási-Albert model, fitness model and our present model considering its topological properties: degree distribution, time dependence of the connectivity, shortest path length and clustering coefficient. We verify the existence of a region where the characteristics of sites play an important role in the rate of gaining links as well as in the number of links between sites with similar and dissimilar characteristics.