Multiple-predators-based capture process on complex networks**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61304154), the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (Grant No. 20133219120032), the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 2013M541673), and China Postdoctoral Science Special Foundation (Grant No. 2015T80556).

Abstract

The predator/prey (capture) problem is a prototype of many network-related applications. We study the capture process on complex networks by considering multiple predators from multiple sources. In our model, some lions start from multiple sources simultaneously to capture the lamb by biased random walks, which are controlled with a free parameter α. We derive the distribution of the lamb’s lifetime and the expected lifetime 〈T〉. Through simulation, we find that the expected lifetime drops substantially with the increasing number of lions. Moreover, we study how the underlying topological structure affects the capture process, and obtain that locating on small-degree nodes is better than on large-degree nodes to prolong the lifetime of the lamb. The dense or homogeneous network structures are against the survival of the lamb. We also discuss how to improve the capture efficiency in our model.