This paper argues that parties and other gatherings are important for the development of friendship networks. It proposes a stochastic model for the evolution of networks over time, the distinctive feature of which is the party event. A party event occurs when a person in the network has a gathering and invites all of his/her friends who then also become friends. The Party Models discussed are all based upon this simple assumption. After formulating basic assumptions, various differential equations describing Party Models are derived. Subsequently several concepts useful for model analysis are defined and briefly explored. These include the concepts of potential, equivalence class form, and degenerate models. The penultimate section considers models for three person networks in some detail and with numerical illustrations. All extended mathematical arguments are placed in the Mathematical Appendix.
Parties and networks: Stochastic models for relationship networks
Reprints and Corporate Permissions
Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?
To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:
Academic Permissions
Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?
Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:
If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.
Related research
People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.
Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.
Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.