Anomalous critical and supercritical phenomena in explosive percolation

Abstract

The emergence of large-scale connectivity on an underlying network or lattice, the so-called percolation transition, has a profound impact on the system’s macroscopic behaviours. There is thus great interest in controlling the location of the percolation transition to either enhance or delay its onset and, more generally, in understanding the consequences of such control interventions. Here we review explosive percolation, the sudden emergence of large-scale connectivity that results from repeated, small interventions designed to delay the percolation transition. These transitions exhibit drastic, unanticipated and exciting consequences that make explosive percolation an emerging paradigm for modelling real-world systems ranging from social networks to nanotubes. The transition to widespread connectivity in networks is aptly described by concepts borrowed from percolation theory. Attempts to delay the transition with small interventions lead to explosive percolation, with drastic consequences for the system.