Progress in the physics of complex networks

Current research investigating the thermo-mechanical behavior of materials at elevated and high loading conditions is performed on two major branches: one is concerned with the elastic, plastic and failure behavior of materials described by constitutive relations in the deviatoric stress space. The other branch is focused on the shock wave formation and propagation where the hydrostatic stress represented by an Equation of State is of primary interest.     

基于通信序列熵的复杂网络传输容量

网络的传输性能在一定程度上依赖于网络的拓扑结构.本文从结构信息的角度分析复杂网络的传输动力学行为,寻找影响网络传输容量的信息结构测度指标.通信序列熵可以有效地量化网络的整体结构信息,为了表征网络整体传输能力,把通信序列熵引入到复杂网络传输动力学分析中,研究网络的通信序列熵与传输性能之间的关联特性,分析这种相关性存在的内在机理.分别在BA无标度和WS小世界网络模型上进行仿真,结果显示:网络的通信序列熵与其传输容量存在密切关联性,随着通信序列熵的增加,网络拓扑结构的均匀性随之增强,传输容量明显增加.网络的传输容量是通信序列熵的单调递增函数,与通信序列熵成正关联关系.通信序列熵可有效评估网络的传输容量,本结论可为设计高传输容量网络提供理论依据.     

The hierarchical backbone of complex networks

Given any complex directed network, a set of acyclic subgraphs can be extracted that will provide valuable information about its hierarchical structure. This Letter presents how the interpretation of the network weight matrix as a transition matrix allows the hierarchical backbone to be identified and characterized in terms of the concepts of hierarchical degree, which expresses the total weights of virtual edges established along successive transitions. The potential of the proposed approach is illustrated with respect to simulated random and preferential-attachment networks as well as real data related to word associations and gene sequencing.     

张量网络与神经网络在物理学中的应用和交融

基于张量网络的数值重正化群方法,被广泛地应用到物理学的研究中,已经成为量子多体计算方法大家庭的重要一员。近年来,基于神经网络的机器学习方法也逐渐渗透到物理学领域,并被成功应用在量子多体等问题的研究中。文章简要综述了近年来张量网络和神经网络在凝聚态物理和统计物理学的应用,并讨论了两者的相互交叉和结合。     

Self-organization and the physics of glassy networks

Network glasses are the physical prototype for many self-organized systems, ranging from proteins to computer science. Conventional theories of gases, liquids and crystals do not account for the strongly material-selective character of the glass-forming tendency, the phase diagrams of glasses or their optimizable properties. A new topological theory, only 25 years old, has succeeded where conventional theories have failed. It shows that (probably all slowly quenched) glasses, including network glasses, are the result of the combined effects of a few simple mechanisms. These glass-forming mechanisms are topological in nature and have already been identified for several important glasses, including chalcogenide alloys, silicates (window glass and computer chips) and proteins.     

Accessibility in complex networks

This Letter describes a method for the quantification of the diversity of non-linear dynamics in complex networks as a consequence of self-avoiding random walks. The methodology is analyzed in the context of theoretical models and illustrated with respect to the characterization of the accessibility in urban streets.     

Synchronization in complex networks

Synchronization processes in populations of locally interacting elements are the focus of intense research in physical, biological, chemical, technological and social systems. The many efforts devoted to understanding synchronization phenomena in natural systems now take advantage of the recent theory of complex networks. In this review, we report the advances in the comprehension of synchronization phenomena when oscillating elements are constrained to interact in a complex network topology. We also take an overview of the new emergent features coming out from the interplay between the structure and the function of the underlying patterns of connections. Extensive numerical work as well as analytical approaches to the problem are presented. Finally, we review several applications of synchronization in complex networks to different disciplines: biological systems and neuroscience, engineering and computer science, and economy and social sciences.     

The chaotic phase synchronization in adaptively coupled-delayed complex networks

The notion of chaotic phase synchronization (CPS) in the large-scale delayed scale-free network is discussed in this Letter. The amplitude death (AD) phenomenon is observed and analyzed in terms of energy. AD occurs when the time-delay becomes long enough. The adaptive coupling scheme has better performance in CPS and AD compared with the constant scheme, and simulation results confirm conclusions.     

The bounds of heavy-tailed return distributions in evolving complex networks

We consider the evolution of scale-free networks according to preferential attachment schemes and show the conditions for which the exponent characterizing the degree distribution is bounded by upper and lower values. Our framework is an agent model, presented in the context of economic networks of trades, which shows the emergence of critical behavior. Starting from a brief discussion about the main features of the evolving network of trades, we show that the logarithmic return distributions have bounded heavy tails, and the corresponding bounding exponent values can be derived. Finally, we discuss these findings in the context of model risk.     

Loop statistics in complex networks

We study a scaling property of the number M_h(N) of loops of size h in complex networks with respect to a network size N. For networks with a bounded second moment of degree, we find two distinct scaling behaviors: M_h(N) ~ (constant) and M_h(N) ~ lnN as N increases. Uncorrelated random networks specified only with a degree distribution and Markovian networks specified only with a nearest neighbor degree-degree correlation display the former scaling behavior, while growing network models display the latter. The difference is attributed to structural correlation that cannot be captured by a short-range degree-degree correlation.     

Finite-size scaling in complex networks

A finite-size-scaling (FSS) theory is proposed for various models in complex networks. In particular, we focus on the FSS exponent, which plays a crucial role in analyzing numerical data for finite-size systems. Based on the droplet-excitation (hyperscaling) argument, we conjecture the values of the FSS exponents for the Ising model, the susceptible-infected-susceptible model, and the contact process, all of which are confirmed reasonably well in numerical simulations.     

Hierarchy measures in complex networks

Using each node's degree as a proxy for its importance, the topological hierarchy of a complex network is introduced and quantified. We propose a simple dynamical process used to construct networks which are either maximally or minimally hierarchical. Comparison with these extremal cases as well as with random scale-free networks allows us to better understand hierarchical versus modular features in several real-life complex networks. For random scale-free topologies the extent of topological hierarchy is shown to smoothly decline with gamma, the exponent of a degree distribution, reaching its highest possible value for gamma3.     

Synchronization in complex clustered networks

Synchronization in complex networks has been an active area of research in recent years. While much effort has been devoted to networks with the small-world and scale-free topology, structurally they are often assumed to have a single, densely connected component. Recently it has also become apparent that many networks in social, biological, and technological systems are clustered, as characterized by a number (or a hierarchy) of sparsely linked clusters, each with dense and complex internal connections. Synchronization is fundamental to the dynamics and functions of complex clustered networks, but this problem has just begun to be addressed. This paper reviews some progress in this direction by focusing on the interplay between the clustered topology and network synchronizability. In particular, there are two parameters characterizing a clustered network: the intra-cluster and the inter-cluster link density. Our goal is to clarify the roles of these parameters in shaping network synchronizability. By using theoretical analysis and direct numerical simulations of oscillator networks, it is demonstrated that clustered networks with random inter-cluster links are more synchronizable, and synchronization can be optimized when inter-cluster and intra-cluster links match. The latter result has one counterintuitive implication: more links, if placed improperly, can actually lead to destruction of synchronization, even though such links tend to decrease the average network distance. It is hoped that this review will help attract attention to the fundamental problem of clustered structures/synchronization in network science.      

Explosive phenomena in complex networks

The emergence of large-scale connectivity and synchronization are crucial to the structure, function and failure of many complex socio-technical networks. Thus, there is great interest in analyzing phase transitions to large-scale connectivity and to global synchronization, including how to enhance or delay the onset. These phenomena are traditionally studied as second-order phase transitions where, at the critical threshold, the order parameter increases rapidly but continuously. In 2009, an extremely abrupt transition was found for a network growth process where links compete for addition in an attempt to delay percolation. This observation of ‘explosive percolation’ was ultimately revealed to be a continuous transition in the thermodynamic limit, yet with very atypical finite-size scaling, and it started a surge of work on explosive phenomena and their consequences. Many related models are now shown to yield discontinuous percolation transitions and even hybrid transitions. Explosive percolation enables many other features such as multiple giant components, modular structures, discrete scale invariance and non-self-averaging, relating to properties found in many real phenomena such as explosive epidemics, electric breakdowns and the emergence of molecular life. Models of explosive synchronization provide an analytic framework for the dynamics of abrupt transitions and reveal the interplay between the distribution in natural frequencies and the network structure, with applications ranging from epileptic seizures to waking from anesthesia. Here we review the vast literature on explosive phenomena in networked systems and synthesize the fundamental connections between models and survey the application areas. We attempt to classify explosive phenomena based on underlying mechanisms and to provide a coherent overview and perspective for future research to address the many vital questions that remained unanswered.     

Target recovery in complex networks

The invulnerability of complex networks is an important issue which has been widely analyzed in different fields. A lot of works have been done to measure and improve the stability of complex networks when being attacked. Recently, how to recover networks after attack was intensively studied. The existing methods are mainly designed to recover the overall functionality of networks, yet in many real cases the recovery of important nodes should be given priority, to which we refer target recovery. For example, when the cold wave paralyses the railway networks, target recovery means to repair those stations or railways such that the transport capacity of densely-populated cities can be recovered as fast as possible. In this paper, we first compare the impact of attacks on the whole network and target nodes respectively, and then study the efficiency of traditional recovery methods that are proposed based on global centrality metrics. Furthermore, based on target centrality metrics, we introduce a local betweenness recovery method and we find it has better performance than the traditional methods. We finally propose a hybrid recovery method which includes local betweenness metric and local closeness metric. The performance of the hybrid method is shown to be similar to that of the greedy algorithm.     

Synchronization processes in complex networks

During the last decades the emergence of collective dynamics in large networks of coupled units has been investigated in fields such as optics, chemistry, biology and ecology. Recently, complex networks have provided a challenging framework for the study of synchronization of dynamical units, based on the interplay between complexity in the overall topology and local dynamical properties of the coupled units. In this work, we review the constructive role played by such complex wirings for the synchronization of networks of coupled dynamical systems. We review the main techniques that have been proposed for assessing the propensity for synchronization (synchronizability) of a given networked system. We will also describe the main applications, especially in the view of selecting the optimal topology in the coupling configuration that provides enhancement of the synchronization features.