The winner takes it all

We study competing first passage percolation on graphs generated by the configuration model. At time 0, vertex 1 and vertex 2 are infected with the type 1 and the type 2 infection, respectively, and an uninfected vertex then becomes type 1 (2) infected at rate λ₁ (λ₂) times the number of edges connecting it to a type 1 (2) infected neighbor. Our main result is that, if the degree distribution is a power-law with exponent τ∈(2,3), then as the number of vertices tends to infinity and with high probability, one of the infection types will occupy all but a finite number of vertices. Furthermore, which one of the infections wins is random and both infections have a positive probability of winning regardless of the values of λ₁ and λ₂. The picture is similar with multiple starting points for the infections.