We present high-accuracy quasistationary (QS) simulations of the contact process in quenched networks, built using the configuration model with both structural and natural cutoffs. The critical behavior is analyzed in the framework of the anomalous finite-size scaling which was recently shown to hold for the contact process on annealed networks. It turns out that the quenched topology does not qualitatively change the critical behavior, leading only (as expected) to a shift of the transition point. The anomalous finite-size scaling holds with exactly the same exponents of the annealed case, so we can conclude that heterogeneous mean-field theory works for the contact process on quenched networks, at odds with previous claims. Interestingly, topological correlations induced by the presence of the natural cutoff do not alter the picture.

• Received 30 June 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.84.066102