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Cascade Failure — Network Robustness

Remove a hub and watch the network fragment — targeted vs random attack on scale-free graphs

Nodes remaining:  |  Giant component:  |  Fraction removed:
Barabási et al. (2000): Scale-free networks (BA model, degree dist P(k)~k-3) are robust to random node removal but collapse quickly under targeted attack on high-degree hubs. Random (ER) networks are more uniform in their fragility. This asymmetry is critical for understanding internet resilience and epidemic containment.