在对源代码进行了大量的挖掘之后，我找到了一个关于算法如何工作的非正式解释。

%% ----------------------------------------------------------------
%% Prevent Overlapping Partitions Algorithm
%% ========================================
%%
%% 1. When a node lose connection to another node it sends a
%%    {lost_connection, LostConnNode, OtherNode} message to all
%%    other nodes that it knows of.
%% 2. When a lost_connection message is received the receiver
%%    first checks if it has seen this message before. If so, it
%%    just ignores it. If it has not seen it before, it sends the
%%    message to all nodes it knows of. This in order to ensure
%%    that all connected nodes will receive this message. It then
%%    sends a {remove_connection, LostConnRecvNode} message (where
%%    LostConnRecvNode is its own node name) to OtherNode and
%%    clear all information about OtherNode so OtherNode wont be
%%    part of ReceiverNode's cluster anymore. When this information
%%    has been cleared, no lost_connection will be triggered when
%%    a nodedown message for the connection to OtherNode is
%%    received.
%% 3. When a {remove_connection, LostConnRecvNode} message is
%%    received, the receiver node takes down the connection to
%%    LostConnRecvNode and clears its information about
%%    LostConnRecvNode so it is not part of its cluster anymore.
%%    Both nodes will receive a nodedown message due to the
%%    connection being closed, but none of them will send
%%    lost_connection messages since they have cleared information
%%    about the other node.