10 research outputs found
Small world-Fractal Transition in Complex Networks: Renormalization Group Approach
We show that renormalization group (RG) theory applied to complex networks
are useful to classify network topologies into universality classes in the
space of configurations. The RG flow readily identifies a small-world/fractal
transition by finding (i) a trivial stable fixed point of a complete graph,
(ii) a non-trivial point of a pure fractal topology that is stable or unstable
according to the amount of long-range links in the network, and (iii) another
stable point of a fractal with short-cuts that exists exactly at the
small-world/fractal transition. As a collateral, the RG technique explains the
coexistence of the seemingly contradicting fractal and small-world phases and
allows to extract information on the distribution of short-cuts in real-world
networks, a problem of importance for information flow in the system
Designer Nets from Local Strategies
We propose a local strategy for constructing scale-free networks of arbitrary
degree distributions, based on the redirection method of Krapivsky and Redner
[Phys. Rev. E 63, 066123 (2001)]. Our method includes a set of external
parameters that can be tuned at will to match detailed behavior at small degree
k, in addition to the scale-free power-law tail signature at large k. The
choice of parameters determines other network characteristics, such as the
degree of clustering. The method is local in that addition of a new node
requires knowledge of only the immediate environs of the (randomly selected)
node to which it is attached. (Global strategies require information on finite
fractions of the growing net.
The Area and Population of Cities: New Insights from a Different Perspective on Cities
The distribution of the population of cities has attracted a great deal of attention, in part because it sharply constrains models of local growth. However, to this day, there is no consensus on the distribution below the very upper tail, because available data need to rely on the “legal” rather than “economic” definition of cities for medium and small cities. To remedy this difficulty, in this work we construct cities “from the bottom up” by clustering populated areas obtained from high-resolution data. This method allows us to investigate the population and area of cities for urban agglomerations of all sizes. We find that Zipf’s law (a power law with exponent close to 1) for population holds for cities as small as 12,000 inhabitants in the USA and 5,000 inhabitants in Great Britain. In addition the distribution of city areas is also close to a Zipf’s law. We provide a parsimonious model with endogenous city area that is consistent with those findings.
Fractal and Transfractal Recursive Scale-Free Nets
We explore the concepts of self-similarity, dimensionality, and
(multi)scaling in a new family of recursive scale-free nets that yield
themselves to exact analysis through renormalization techniques. All nets in
this family are self-similar and some are fractals - possessing a finite
fractal dimension - while others are small world (their diameter grows
logarithmically with their size) and are infinite-dimensional. We show how a
useful measure of "transfinite" dimension may be defined and applied to the
small world nets. Concerning multiscaling, we show how first-passage time for
diffusion and resistance between hub (the most connected nodes) scale
differently than for other nodes. Despite the different scalings, the Einstein
relation between diffusion and conductivity holds separately for hubs and
nodes. The transfinite exponents of small world nets obey Einstein relations
analogous to those in fractal nets.Comment: Includes small revisions and references added as result of readers'
feedbac
Percolation in Hierarchical Scale-Free Nets
We study the percolation phase transition in hierarchical scale-free nets.
Depending on the method of construction, the nets can be fractal or small-world
(the diameter grows either algebraically or logarithmically with the net size),
assortative or disassortative (a measure of the tendency of like-degree nodes
to be connected to one another), or possess various degrees of clustering. The
percolation phase transition can be analyzed exactly in all these cases, due to
the self-similar structure of the hierarchical nets. We find different types of
criticality, illustrating the crucial effect of other structural properties
besides the scale-free degree distribution of the nets.Comment: 9 Pages, 11 figures. References added and minor corrections to
manuscript. In pres
Statistics of Cycles: How Loopy is your Network?
We study the distribution of cycles of length h in large networks (of size
N>>1) and find it to be an excellent ergodic estimator, even in the extreme
inhomogeneous case of scale-free networks. The distribution is sharply peaked
around a characteristic cycle length, h* ~ N^a. Our results suggest that h* and
the exponent a might usefully characterize broad families of networks. In
addition to an exact counting of cycles in hierarchical nets, we present a
Monte-Carlo sampling algorithm for approximately locating h* and reliably
determining a. Our empirical results indicate that for small random scale-free
nets of degree exponent g, a=1/(g-1), and a grows as the nets become larger.Comment: Further work presented and conclusions revised, following referee
report
Spatially Distributed Social Complex Networks
We propose a bare-bones stochastic model that takes into account both the geographical distribution of people within a country and their complex network of connections. The model, which is designed to give rise to a scale-free network of social connections and to visually resemble the geographical spread seen in satellite pictures of the Earth at night, gives rise to a power-law distribution for the ranking of cities by population size (but for the largest cities) and reflects the notion that highly connected individuals tend to live in highly populated areas. It also yields some interesting insights regarding Gibrat’s law for the rates of city growth (by population size), in partial support of the findings in a recent analysis of real data [Rozenfeld et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 105, 18702 (2008).]. The model produces a nontrivial relation between city population and city population density and a superlinear relationship between social connectivity and city population, both of which seem quite in line with real data