Fluctuations in a general preferential attachment model via Stein's method

Abstract: We consider a general preferential attachment model, where the probability that a newly arriving vertex connects to an older vertex is proportional to a sublinear function of the indegree of the older vertex at that time. It is well known that the distribution of a uniformly chosen vertex converges to a limiting distribution. Depending on the parameters, this model can show power law, but also stretched exponential behaviour. Using Stein's method we provide rates of convergence for the total variation distance. Our proof uses the fact that the limiting distribution is the stationary distribution of a Markov chain together with the generator method of Barbour.