Finding overlapping communities based on Markov chain and link clustering

Since community structure is an important feature of complex network, the study of community detection has attracted more and more attention in recent years. Despite most researchers focus on identifying disjoint communities, communities in many real networks often overlap. In this paper, we proposed a novel MCLC algorithm to discover overlapping communities, which using random walk on the line graph and attraction intensity. Unlike traditional random walk starting from a node, our random walk starts from a link. First we transform an undirected network graph to a weighted line graph, and then random walks on this line graph can be associated with a Markov chain. By calculating the transition probability of the Markov chain, we obtain the similarity between link pairs. Next the links can be clustered into “link communities” by a linkage method, and these nodes between link communities can be overlapping nodes. When converting the “link communities” into the “node communities”, we make a definition of attraction intensity to control the overlapping size. Finally the detected communities are permitted overlapped. Experiments on synthetic networks and some real world networks validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed algorithm. Comparing overlapping modularity Qov with other related algorithms, the results of this algorithm are satisfactory

Generalized Markov stability of network communities

We address the problem of community detection in networks by introducing a general definition of Markov stability, based on the difference between the probability fluxes of a Markov chain on the network at different time scales. The specific implementation of the quality function and the resulting optimal community structure thus become dependent both on the type of Markov process and on the specific Markov times considered. For instance, if we use a natural Markov chain dynamics and discount its stationary distribution -- that is, we take as reference process the dynamics at infinite time -- we obtain the standard formulation of the Markov stability. Notably, the possibility to use finite-time transition probabilities to define the reference process naturally allows detecting communities at different resolutions, without the need to consider a continuous-time Markov chain in the small time limit. The main advantage of our general formulation of Markov stability based on dynamical flows is that we work with lumped Markov chains on network partitions, having the same stationary distribution of the original process. In this way the form of the quality function becomes invariant under partitioning, leading to a self-consistent definition of community structures at different aggregation scales

Communities as Well Separated Subgraphs With Cohesive Cores: Identification of Core-Periphery Structures in Link Communities

Communities in networks are commonly considered as highly cohesive subgraphs which are well separated from the rest of the network. However, cohesion and separation often cannot be maximized at the same time, which is why a compromise is sought by some methods. When a compromise is not suitable for the problem to be solved it might be advantageous to separate the two criteria. In this paper, we explore such an approach by defining communities as well separated subgraphs which can have one or more cohesive cores surrounded by peripheries. We apply this idea to link communities and present an algorithm for constructing hierarchical core-periphery structures in link communities and first test results.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, submitted version of a paper accepted for the 7th International Conference on Complex Networks and Their Applications, December 11-13, 2018, Cambridge, UK; revised version at http://141.20.126.227/~qm/papers