Emergence of fractal scale-free networks from stochastic evolution on the Cayley tree

An unexpected recognition of fractal topology in some real-world scale-free networks has evoked again an interest in the mechanisms stimulating their evolution. To explain this phenomenon a few models of a deterministic construction as well as a probabilistic growth controlled by a tunable parameter have been proposed so far. A quite different approach based on the fully stochastic evolution of the fractal scale-free networks presented in this Letter counterpoises these former ideas. It is argued that the diffusive evolution of the network on the Cayley tree shapes its fractality, self-similarity and the branching number criticality without any control parameter. The last attribute of the scale-free network is an intrinsic property of the skeleton, a special type of spanning tree which determines its fractality.