diff --git a/cpp/switchchain_spectrum.cpp b/cpp/switchchain_spectrum.cpp
index 5ccf1e5f81447b1789ee6e8c8fb717cbb325db12..e9d8603be10a778cd2facf9c113bf48b65a899dd 100644
--- a/cpp/switchchain_spectrum.cpp
+++ b/cpp/switchchain_spectrum.cpp
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 #include "graph.hpp"
 #include "graph_gcm.hpp"
 #include "graph_spectrum.hpp"
-#include "powerlaw.hpp"
+#include "graph_powerlaw.hpp"
 #include <algorithm>
 #include <array>
 #include <fstream>
@@ -42,37 +42,11 @@ int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
 
     for (int numVertices = 500; numVertices <= 500; numVertices += 1000) {
         for (float tau : tauValues) {
-
-            DegreeSequence ds(numVertices);
-            powerlaw_distribution degDist(tau, 1, numVertices);
-            //std::poisson_distribution<> degDist(12);
-
             // For a single n,tau take samples over several instances of
             // the degree distribution.
-            // 500 samples seems to give reasonable results
             for (int degreeSample = 0; degreeSample < 5; ++degreeSample) {
-                // Generate a graph
-                // might require multiple tries
-                for (int i = 1; ; ++i) {
-                    std::generate(ds.begin(), ds.end(),
-                                  [&degDist, &rng] { return degDist(rng); });
-                    // First make the sum even
-                    unsigned int sum = std::accumulate(ds.begin(), ds.end(), 0);
-                    if (sum % 2) {
-                        continue;
-                        // Can we do this: ??
-                        ds.back()++;
-                    }
-
-                    if (g.createFromDegreeSequence(ds))
-                        break;
-
-                    // When 10 tries have not worked, output a warning
-                    if (i % 10 == 0) {
-                        std::cerr << "Warning: could not create graph from "
-                                     "degree sequence. Trying again...\n";
-                    }
-                }
+                DegreeSequence ds;
+                generatePowerlawGraph(numVertices, tau, g, ds, rng);
 
                 SwitchChain chain;
                 if (!chain.initialize(g)) {