Thek-coreof a graphGis the maximal subgraph ofGhaving minimum degree at leastk. In 1996, Pittel, Spencer and Wormald found the threshold λcfor the emergence of a non-trivialk-core in the random graphG(n, λ/n), and the asymptotic size of thek-core above the threshold. We give a new proof of this result using a local coupling of the graph to a suitable branching process. This proof extends to a general model of inhomogeneous random graphs with independence between the edges. As an example, we study thek-core in a certain power-law or ‘scale-free’ graph with a parameterccontrolling the overall density of edges. For eachk≥ 3, we find the threshold value ofcat which thek-core emerges, and the fraction of vertices in thek-core whencis ϵ above the threshold. In contrast toG(n, λ/n), this fraction tends to 0 as ϵ→0.
Thek-Core and Branching Processes