On the Rényi index of random graphs
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Networks (graphs) permeate scientific fields such as biology, social science, economics, etc. Empirical studies have shown that real-world networks are often heterogeneous, that is, the degrees of nodes do not concentrate on a number. Recently, the Rényi index was tentatively used to measure network heterogeneity. However, the validity of the Rényi index in network settings is not theoretically justified. In this paper, we study this problem. We derive the limit of the Rényi index of a heterogeneous Erdös-Rényi random graph and a power-law random graph, as well as the convergence rates. Our results show that the Erdös-Rényi random graph has asymptotic Rényi index zero and the power-law random graph (highly heterogeneous) has asymptotic Rényi index one. In addition, the limit of the Rényi index increases as the graph gets more heterogeneous. These results theoretically justify the Rényi index is a reasonable statistical measure of network heterogeneity. We also evaluate the finite-sample performance of the Rényi index by simulation.
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