The small-world phenomenon: a model, explanations, characterizations, and examples

Abstract

We introduce and define three types of small worlds: small worlds based on the diameter of the network (SWD), those based on the average geodesic distance between nodes (SWA), and those based on the median geodesic distance (SWMd). These types of networks are defined as limiting properties of sequences of sets. We show the exact relation between these three types, namely that each SWD network is also an SWA network and that each SWA network is also an SWMd network. Yet, having the small-world property is a phenomenon that can easily occur in the sense that most networks are small-world networks in one of the three ways. We introduce sequences of distance frequencies, so-called alpha-sequences, and prove a relation between the majorization property between alpha-sequences and small-world properties.