We introduce a guided network growth model, which we call the degree product rule process, that uses solely local information when adding new edges. For small numbers of candidate edges our process gives rise to a second order phase transition, but becomes first order in the limit of global choice. We provide the set of critical exponents required to characterize the nature of this percolation transition. Such a process permits interventions which can delay the onset of percolation while tempering the explosiveness caused by cluster product rule processes.
We report the critical point for site percolation for the "explosive" type for 2D square lattices using Monte Carlo simulations and compare it to the classical well known percolation. We use similar algorithms as have been recently reported for bond percolation and networks. We calculate the "explosive" site percolation threshold as $p_c=0.695$ and we find evidence that "explosive" site percolation surprisingly may belong to a different universality class than bond percolation on lattices, providing that the transitions (a) are continuous and (b) obey the conventional finite size scaling forms…
To establish the bond-site duality of explosive percolations in 2 dimension, the site and bond explosive percolation models are carefully defined on a square lattice. By studying the cluster distribution function and the behavior of the second largest cluster, it is shown that the duality in which the transition is discontinuous exists for the pairs of the site model and the corresponding bond model which relatively enhances the intra-bond occupation. In contrast the intra-bond-suppressed models which have no corresponding site models undergo the continuous transition and satisfy the normal sc…
Based on the self-consistent equations of the order parameter $P_\infty$ and the mean cluster size $S$, we develop a novel self-consistent simulation (SCS) method for arbitrary percolation on the Bethe lattice (infinite homogeneous Cayley tree). By applying SCS to the well-known percolation models, random bond percolation and bootstrap percolation, we obtain prototype functions for continuous and discontinuous phase transitions. By comparing the key functions obtained from SCSs for the Achlioptas processes (APs) with a product rule and a sum rule to the prototype functions, we show that the pe…
Explosive percolation in the Achlioptas process has recently attracted much research attention. From extensive simulations in an event-based ensemble, we find that, in dimensions from $2$ to $6$ and on random graphs, the Achlioptas processes all have two scaling windows and multiple fractal structures. The mixing of these multiple scalings successfully explains the previously observed anomalous phenomena in the conventional ensemble, and, moreover, correct critical exponents are now determined with a high precision by the event-based method. The multiple scalings and the ensemble inequivalence…
The explosive percolation problem on the complete graph is investigated via extensive numerical simulations. We obtain the cluster-size distribution at the moment when the cluster size heterogeneity becomes maximum. The distribution is found to be well described by the power-law form with the decay exponent $τ= 2.06(2)$, followed by a hump. We then use the finite-size scaling method to make all the distributions at various system sizes up to $N=2^{37}$ collapse perfectly onto a scaling curve characterized solely by the single exponent $τ$. We also observe that the instant of that collapse conv…
In this paper we review the recent advances on explosive percolation, a very sharp phase transition first observed by Achlioptas et al. (Science, 2009). There a simple model was proposed, which changed slightly the classical percolation process so that the emergence of the spanning cluster is delayed. This slight modification turns out to have a great impact on the percolation phase transition. The resulting transition is so sharp that it was termed explosive, and it was at first considered to be discontinuous. This surprising fact stimulated considerable interest in "Achlioptas processes". La…
We study a two-dimensional kinetic Ising model with Swendsen-Wang dynamics, replacing the usual percolation on top of Ising clusters by explosive percolation. The model exhibits a reversible first-order phase transition with hysteresis. Surprisingly, at the transition flanks the global bond density seems to be equal to the percolation thresholds.
We study the site percolation under Achlioptas process (AP) with a product rule in a $2-dimensional$ (2D) square lattice. From the measurement of the cluster size distribution, $P_s$, we find that $P_s$ has a very robust power-law regime followed by a stable hump near the transition threshold. Based on the careful analysis on the $P_s$ distribution, we show that the transition should be discontinuous. The existence of the hysteresis loop in order parameter also verifies that the transition is discontinuous in 2D. Moreover we also show that the transition nature from the product rule is not the…
An explosive percolation transition is the abrupt emergence of a giant cluster at a threshold caused by a suppression of the growth of large clusters. In this paper, we consider the information entropy of the cluster size distribution, which is the probability distribution for the size of a randomly chosen cluster. It has been reported that information entropy does not reach its maximum at the threshold in explosive percolation models, a result seemingly contrary to other previous results that the cluster size distribution shows power-law behavior and the cluster size diversity (number of dist…
In this work, we study explosive percolation (EP) in Barabási-Albert (BA) network, in which nodes are born with degree $k=m$, for both product rule (PR) and sum rule (SR) of the Achlioptas process. For $m=1$ we find that the critical point $t_c=1$ which is the maximum possible value of the relative link density $t$; Hence we cannot have access to the other phase like percolation in one dimension. However, for $m>1$ we find that $t_c$ decreases with increasing $m$ and the critical exponents $ν, α, β$ and $γ$ for $m>1$ are found to be independent not only of the value of $m$ but also of PR and S…
The suitable interpolation between classical percolation and a special variant of explosive percolation enables the explicit realization of a tricritical percolation point. With high-precision simulations of the order parameter and the second moment of the cluster size distribution a fully consistent tricritical scaling scenario emerges yielding the tricritical crossover exponent $1/ϕ_t=1.8\pm0.1$.
The finite-size scaling (FSS) theory for continuous phase transitions has been useful in determining the critical behavior from the size dependent behaviors of thermodynamic quantities. When the phase transition is discontinuous, however, FSS approach has not been well established yet. Here, we develop a FSS theory for the explosive percolation transition arising in the Erdős and Rényi model under the Achlioptas process. A scaling function is derived based on the observed fact that the derivative of the curve of the order parameter at the critical point $t_c$ diverges with system size in a pow…
In this article, we investigate explosive bond percolation (EBP) with product rule, formally known as Achlioptas process, on a scale-free multifractal weighted planar stochastic lattice (WPSL). One of the key features of the EBP transition is the delay, compared to corresponding random bond percolation (RBP), in the onset of spanning cluster. However, when it happens, it happens so dramatically that initially it was believed, albeit ultimately proved wrong, that explosive percolation (EP) exhibits first order transition. In the case of EP, much efforts were devoted to resolving the issue of it…
We show that only considering the largest cluster suffices to obtain a first-order percolation transition. As opposed to previous realizations of explosive percolation our models obtain Gaussian cluster distributions and compact clusters as one would expect at first-order transitions. We also discover that the cluster perimeters are fractal at the transition point, yielding a fractal dimension of $1.23\pm0.03$, close to that of watersheds.
Explosive percolation in a network is a phase transition where a large portion of nodes becomes connected with an addition of a small number of edges. Although extensively studied in random network models and reconstructed real networks, explosive percolation has not been observed in a more realistic scenario where a network is generated by thresholding a similarity matrix describing between-node associations. In this report, I examine construction schemes of such thresholded networks, and demonstrate that explosive percolation can be observed by introducing edges in a particular order.
The existence of explosive phase transitions in random (Erd\H os Rényi-type) networks has been recently documented by Achlioptas et al.\ [Science {\bf 323}, 1453 (2009)] via simulations. In this Letter we describe the underlying mechanism behind these first-order phase transitions and develop tools that allow us to identify (and predict) when a random network will exhibit an explosive transition. Several interesting new models displaying explosive transitions are also presented.
We study the Shannon entropy of the cluster size distribution in classical as well as explosive percolation, in order to estimate the uncertainty in the sizes of randomly chosen clusters. At the critical point the cluster size distribution is a power-law, i.e. there are clusters of all sizes, so one expects the information entropy to attain a maximum. As expected, our results show that the entropy attains a maximum at this point for classical percolation. Surprisingly, for explosive percolation the maximum entropy does not match the critical point. Moreover, we show that it is possible determi…
In a recent Letter, Friedman and Landsberg discussed the underlying mechanism of explosive phase transitions on complex networks [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 255701 (2009)]. This Brief Report presents a modest, though more insightful extension of their arguments. We discuss the implications of their results on the cluster-size distribution and deduce that, under general conditions, the percolation transition will be explosive if the mean number of nodes per cluster diverges in the thermodynamic limit and prior to the transition threshold. In other words, if, upon increase of the network size n the a…
The growth of two-dimensional lattice bond percolation clusters through a cooperative Achlioptas-type of process, where the choice of which bond to occupy next depends upon the masses of the clusters it connects, is shown to go through an explosive, first-order kinetic phase transition with a sharp jump in the mass of the largest cluster as the number of bonds is increased. The critical behavior of this growth model is shown to be of a different universality class than standard percolation.
Percolation is one of the most studied processes in statistical physics. A recent paper by Achlioptas et al. [Science 323, 1453 (2009)] has shown that the percolation transition, which is usually continuous, becomes discontinuous ("explosive") if links are added to the system according to special cooperative rules (Achlioptas processes). In this paper we present a detailed numerical analysis of Achlioptas processes with product rule on various systems, including lattices, random networks a' la Erdoes-Renyi and scale-free networks. In all cases we recover the explosive transition by Achlioptas …
This Letter studies the critical point as well as the discontinuity of a class of explosive site percolation in Erdös and Rényi (ER) random network. The class of the percolation is implemented by introducing a best-of-m rule. Two major results are found: i). For any specific $m$, the critical percolation point scales with the average degree of the network while its exponent associated with $m$ is bounded by -1 and $\sim-0.5$. ii). Discontinuous percolation could occur on sparse networks if and only if $m$ approaches infinite. These results not only generalize some conclusions of ordinary perco…
Percolation is perhaps the simplest example of a process exhibiting a phase transition and one of the most studied phenomena in statistical physics. The percolation transition is continuous if sites/bonds are occupied independently with the same probability. However, alternative rules for the occupation of sites/bonds might affect the order of the transition. A recent set of rules proposed by Achlioptas et al. [Science 323, 1453 (2009)], characterized by competitive link addition, was claimed to lead to a discontinuous connectedness transition, named "explosive percolation". In this work we su…
In this Letter, we show that the explosive percolation is a novel continuous phase transition. The order-parameter-distribution histogram at the percolation threshold is studied in Erdős-Rényi networks, scale-free networks, and square lattice. In finite system, two well-defined Gaussian-like peaks coexist, and the valley between the two peaks is suppressed with the system size increasing. This finite-size effect always appears in typical first-order phase transition. However, both of the two peaks shift to zero point in a power law manner, which indicates the explosive percolation is continuou…
We study explosive percolation (EP) on Erdös-Rényi network for product rule (PR) and sum rule (SR). Initially, it was claimed that EP describes discontinuous phase transition, now it is well-accepted as a probabilistic model for thermal continuous phase transition (CPT). However, no model for CPT is complete unless we know how to relate its observable quantities with those of thermal CPT. To this end, we define entropy, specific heat, re-define susceptibility and show that they behave exactly like their thermal counterparts. We obtain the critical exponents $ν, α, β$ and $γ$ numerically and fi…
Percolation, the formation of a macroscopic connected component, is a key feature in the description of complex networks. The dynamical properties of a variety of systems can be understood in terms of percolation, including the robustness of power grids and information networks, the spreading of epidemics and forest fires, and the stability of gene regulatory networks. Recent studies have shown that if network edges are added "competitively" in undirected networks, the onset of percolation is abrupt or "explosive." The unusual qualitative features of this phase transition have been the subject…
We apply a variant of the explosive percolation procedure to large real-world networks, and show with finite-size scaling that the university class, ordinary or explosive, of the resulting percolation transition depends on the structural properties of the network as well as the number of unoccupied links considered for comparison in our procedure. We observe that in our social networks, the percolation clusters close to the critical point are related to the community structure. This relationship is further highlighted by applying the procedure to model networks with pre-defined communities.
When a group of people unknown to each other meet and familiarize among themselves, over time they form a community on a macroscopic scale. This phenomenon can be understood in the context of percolation transition (PT) of networks, which takes place continuously in the classical random graph model. Recently, a modified model was introduced in which the formation of the community was suppressed. Then the PT occurs explosively at a delayed transition time. Whether the explosive PT is indeed discontinuous or continuous becomes controversial. Here we show that type of PT depends on a detailed dyn…
We present a simple model of network growth and solve it by writing down the dynamic equations for its macroscopic characteristics like the degree distribution and degree correlations. This allows us to study carefully the percolation transition using a generating functions theory. The model considers a network with a fixed number of nodes wherein links are introduced using degree-dependent linking probabilities $p_k$. To illustrate the techniques and support our findings using Monte-Carlo simulations, we introduce the exemplary linking rule $p_k$ proportional to $k^{-α}$, with $α$ between -1 …
The recent work by Achlioptas, D'Souza, and Spencer opened up the possibility of obtaining a discontinuous (explosive) percolation transition by changing the stochastic rule of bond occupation. Despite the active research on this subject, several questions still remain open about the leading mechanism and the properties of the system. We review the largest cluster and the Gaussian models recently introduced. We show that, to obtain a discontinuous transition it is solely necessary to control the size of the largest cluster, suppressing the growth of a cluster differing significantly, in size, …
We study scale-free networks constructed via a cooperative Achlioptas growth process. Links between nodes are introduced in the network in order to produce a scale-free graph with given exponent lambda for the degree distribution, but the choice of each new link depends on the mass of the clusters that this link will merge. Networks constructed via this biased procedure show a percolation transition which strongly differs from the one observed in standard percolation, where links are introduced just randomly. The different growth process leads to a phase transition with a non-vanishing percola…
Controlling the connectivity and rigidity of kirigami, i.e. the process of cutting paper to deploy it into an articulated system, is critical in the manifestations of kirigami in art, science and technology, as it provides the resulting metamaterial with a range of mechanical and geometric properties. Here we combine deterministic and stochastic approaches for the control of rigidity in kirigami using the power of $k$ choices, an approach borrowed from the statistical mechanics of explosive percolation transitions. We show that several methods for rigidifying a kirigami system by incrementally…
We describe the effect of power-law initial distributions of clusters on ordinary percolation and its generalizations, specifically, models of explosive percolation processes based on local optimization. These aggregation processes were shown to exhibit continuous phase transitions if the evolution starts from a set of disconnected nodes. Since the critical exponents of the order parameter in explosive percolation transitions turned out to be very small, these transitions were first believed to be discontinuous. In this article we analyze the evolution starting from clusters of nodes whose siz…
In the usual Achlioptas processes the smallest clusters of a few randomly chosen ones are selected to merge together at each step. The resulting aggregation process leads to the delayed birth of a giant cluster and the so-called explosive percolation transition showing a set of anomalous features. We explore a process with the opposite selection rule, in which the biggest clusters of the randomly chosen ones merge together. We develop a theory of this kind of percolation based on the Smoluchowski equation, find the percolation threshold, and describe the scaling properties of this continuous t…
We introduce a cluster growth process that provides a clear connection between equilibrium statistical mechanics and an explosive percolation model similar to the one recently proposed by Achlioptas et al. [Science 323, 1453 (2009)]. We show that the following two ingredients are essential for obtaining an abrupt (first-order) transition in the fraction of the system occupied by the largest cluster: (i) the size of all growing clusters should be kept approximately the same, and (ii) the inclusion of merging bonds (i.e., bonds connecting vertices in different clusters) should dominate with resp…
Clusters generated by the product-rule growth model of Achlioptas, D'Souza, and Spencer on a two-dimensional square lattice are shown to obey qualitatively different scaling behavior than standard (random growth) percolation. The threshold with unrestricted bond placement (allowing loops) is found precisely using several different criteria based upon both moments and wrapping probabilities, yielding p_c = 0.526565 +/- 0.000005, consistent with the recent result of Radicchi and Fortunato. The correlation-length exponent nu is found to be close to 1. The qualitative difference from regular perco…
We analyze the phase transitions that emerge from the recursive design of certain hyperbolic networks that includes, for instance, a discontinuous ("explosive") transition in ordinary percolation. To this end, we solve the $q$-state Potts model in the analytic continuation for non-integer $q$ with the real-space renormalization group. We find exact expressions for this one-parameter family of models that describe the dramatic transformation of the transition. In particular, this variation in $q$ shows that the discontinuous transition is generic in the regime $q<2$ that includes percolation. A…
We study the explosive character of the percolation transition in a real-world network. We show that the emergence of a spanning cluster in the Human Protein Homology Network (H-PHN) exhibits similar features to an Achlioptas-type process and is markedly different from regular random percolation. The underlying mechanism of this transition can be described by slow-growing clusters that remain isolated until the later stages of the process, when the addition of a small number of links leads to the rapid interconnection of these modules into a giant cluster. Our results indicate that the evoluti…
The Gaussian model of discontinuous percolation, recently introduced by Araújo and Herrmann [Phys. Rev. Lett., 105, 035701 (2010)], is numerically investigated in three dimensions, disclosing a discontinuous transition. For the simple-cubic lattice, in the thermodynamic limit, we report a finite jump of the order parameter, $J=0.415 \pm 0.005$. The largest cluster at the threshold is compact, but its external perimeter is fractal with fractal dimension $d_A = 2.5 \pm 0.2$. The study is extended to hypercubic lattices up to six dimensions and to the mean-field limit (infinite dimension). We fin…
Recently, the modified BFW model on random graph [Phys. Rev. Lett., 106, 115701 (2011)], which shows a strongly discontinuous percolation transition with multiple giant components, has attracted much attention from physicists, statisticians and materials scientists. In this paper, by establishing the theoretical expression of evolution equations on the modified BFW model, the steady-state and evolution process are analyzed and a close correspondence is built between the values of parameter αand the number of giant components in steady-states, which fits very well with the numerical simulations…
Percolation refers to the emergence of a giant connected cluster in a disordered system when the number of connections between nodes exceeds a critical value. The percolation phase transitions were believed to be continuous until recently when in a new so-called "explosive percolation" problem for a competition driven process, a discontinuous phase transition was reported. The analysis of evolution equations for this process showed however that this transition is actually continuous though with surprisingly tiny critical exponents. For a wide class of representative models, we develop a strict…
We analyze an idealized model for the transmission or flow of particles, or discrete packets of information, in a weight bearing branching hierarchical 2-D networks, and its variants. The capacities add hierarchically down the clusters. Each node can accommodate a limited number of packets, depending on its capacity and the packets hop from node to node, following the links between the nodes. The statistical properties of this system are given by the Maxwell - Boltzmann distribution. We obtain analytical expressions for the mean occupation numbers as functions of capacity, for different networ…
An important class of real-world networks have directed edges, and in addition, some rank ordering on the nodes, for instance the "popularity" of users in online social networks. Yet, nearly all research related to explosive percolation has been restricted to undirected networks. Furthermore, information on such rank ordered networks typically flows from higher ranked to lower ranked individuals, such as follower relations, replies and retweets on Twitter. Here we introduce a simple percolation process on an ordered, directed network where edges are added monotonically with respect to the rank…
The biased link occupation rule in the Achlioptas process (AP) discourages the large clusters to grow much ahead of others and encourages faster growth of clusters which lag behind. In this paper we propose a model where this tendency is sharply reflected in the Gamma distribution of the cluster sizes, unlike the power law distribution in AP. In this model single edges between pairs of clusters of sizes $s_i$ and $s_j$ are occupied with a probability $\propto (s_is_j)^α$. The parameter $α$ is continuously tunable over the entire real axis. Numerical studies indicate that for $α< α_c$ the trans…
Percolation is the paradigm for random connectivity and has been one of the most applied statistical models. With simple geometrical rules a transition is obtained which is related to magnetic models. This transition is, in all dimensions, one of the most robust continuous transitions known. We present a very brief overview of more than 60 years of work in this area and discuss several open questions for a variety of models, including classical, explosive, invasion, bootstrap, and correlated percolation.
We investigate the metallic breakdown of a substrate on which highly conducting particles are adsorbed and desorbed with a probability that depends on the local electric field. We find that, by tuning the relative strength $q$ of this dependence, the breakdown can change from continuous to explosive. Precisely, in the limit in which the adsorption probability is the same for any finite voltage drop, we can map our model exactly onto the $q$-state Potts model and thus the transition to a jump occurs at $q=4$. In another limit, where the adsorption probability becomes independent of the local fi…
In phase transition phenomena, the estimation of the critical point is crucial for the calculation of the various critical exponents and the determination of the universality class they belong to. However, this is not an easy task, since a huge amount of realizations is needed to eliminate the noise in the data. In this paper, we introduce a novel method for the simultaneous estimation of the critical point $p_c$ and the critical exponent $β/ν$, applied for the case of "explosive" bond percolation on $2D$ square lattices and ER networks. The results show that with only a few hundred of realiza…
The evolution of the Erdős-Rényi (ER) network by adding edges can be viewed as a cluster aggregation process. Such ER processes can be described by a rate equation for the evolution of the cluster-size distribution with the connection kernel $K_{ij}\sim ij$, where $ij$ is the product of the sizes of two merging clusters. Here, we study more general cases in which $K_{ij}$ is sub-linear as $K_{ij}\sim (ij)^ω$ with $0 \le ω< 1/2$; we find that the percolation transition (PT) is discontinuous. Moreover, PT is also discontinuous when the ER dynamics evolves from proper initial conditions. The rate…
Percolation has long served as a model for diverse phenomena and systems. The percolation transition, that is, the formation of a giant cluster on a macroscopic scale, is known as one of the most robust continuous transitions. Recently, however, many abrupt percolation transitions have been observed in complex systems. To illustrate such phenomena, considerable effort has been made to introduce models and construct theoretical frameworks for explosive, discontinuous, and hybrid percolation transitions. Experimental results have also been reported. In this review article, we describe such perco…
Percolation is a paradigmatic model in disordered systems and has been applied to various natural phenomena. The percolation transition is known as one of the most robust continuous transitions. However, recent extensive studies have revealed that a few models exhibit a discontinuous percolation transition (DPT) in cluster merging processes. Unlike the case of continuous transitions, understanding the nature of discontinuous phase transitions requires a detailed study of the system at hand, which has not been undertaken yet for DPTs. Here we examine the cluster size distribution immediately be…
The finite-size scaling theory for continuous phase transition plays an important role in determining critical point and critical exponents from the size-dependent behaviors of quantities in the thermodynamic limit. For percolation phase transition, the finite-size scaling form for the reduced size of largest cluster has been extended to cluster ranked $R$. However, this is invalid for explosive percolation as our results show. Besides, the behaviors of largest increase of largest cluster induced by adding single link or node have also been used to investigate the critical properties of percol…
Despite original claims of a first-order transition in the product rule model proposed by Achlioptas et al. [Science 323, 1453 (2009)], recent studies indicate that this percolation model, in fact, displays a continuous transition. The distinctive scaling properties of the model at criticality, however, strongly suggest that it should belong to a different universality class than ordinary percolation. Here we introduce a generalization of the product rule that reveals the effect of non-locality on the critical behavior of the percolation process. Precisely, pairs of unoccupied bonds are chosen…
The location and nature of the percolation transition in random networks is a subject of intense interest. Recently, a series of graph evolution processes have been introduced that lead to discontinuous percolation transitions where the addition of a single edge causes the size of the largest component to exhibit a significant macroscopic jump in the thermodynamic limit. These processes can have additional exotic behaviors, such as displaying a `Devil's staircase' of discrete jumps in the supercritical regime. Here we investigate whether the location of the largest jump coincides with the perc…
