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Renormalization group analysis of the small-world network model

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Newman, M.E.J., Watts, D.J.·1999·Physics Letters A

Abstract

We study the small-world network model, which mimics the transition between regular-lattice and random-lattice behavior in social networks of increasing size. We contend that the model displays a normal continuous phase transition with a divergent correlation length as the degree of randomness tends to zero. We propose a real-space renormalization group transformation for the model and demonstrate that the transformation is exact in the limit of large system size. We use this result to calculate the exact value of the single critical exponent for the system, and to derive the scaling form for the average number of "degrees of separation" between two nodes on the network as a function of the three independent variables. We confirm our results by extensive numerical simulation. Appears in Phys. Lett. A 263, 341-346 (1999).

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Metadata

Authors
Newman, M. E. J., & Watts, D. J.
Venue
Physics Letters A
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
1999-12
Volume
263
Issue
4-6
Pages
341-346
ISSN
0375-9601 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2170766502
Cited by
1,448
References
0
FWCI
14.30
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
green

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Renormalization group analysis of the small-world network model. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1016/s0375-9601(99)00757-4
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Newman, M. E. J., & Watts, D. J. (1999). Renormalization group analysis of the small-world network model. Physics Letters A. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0375-9601(99)00757-4

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