Critical behavior of the contact process in annealed scale-free networks

The critical behavior of the contact process is studied in annealed scale-free networks by mapping it on the random-walk problem. We obtain the analytic results for the critical scaling using the event-driven dynamics approach. These results are confirmed by numerical simulations. The disorder fluctuation induced by the sampling disorder in annealed networks is also explored. Finally, we discuss over a possible discrepancy of the finite-size-scaling theory in annealed and quenched networks in spirit of the droplet size scale and the linking disorder fluctuation.