Evolution of functional subnetworks in complex systems

Links in a realistic network may have different functions, which makes the network virtually a combination of some small-size functional subnetworks. Here, by a model of coupled phase oscillators, we investigate how such functional subnetworks are evolved and developed according to the network structure and dynamics. In particular, we study the case of evolutionary clustered networks in which the function type of each link (attractive or repulsive coupling) is adaptively updated according to the local network dynamics. It is found that during the process of system evolution, the network is gradually stabilized into a particular form in which the attractive (repulsive) subnetwork consists only of the intralinks (interlinks). Based on the observed properties of subnetwork evolution, we also propose a new algorithm for network partition which, compared with the conventional algorithms, is distinguished by its convenient operation and fast computing speed.