Sameet Sreenivasan

Social consensus through the influence of committed minorities.

We show how the prevailing majority opinion in a population can be rapidly reversed by a small fraction p of randomly distributed committed agents who consistently proselytize the opposing opinion and are immune to influence. Specifically, we show that when the committed fraction grows beyond a critical value p(c) ≈ 10%, there is a dramatic decrease in the time T(c) taken for the entire population to adopt the committed opinion. In particular, for complete graphs we show that when p < pc, T(c) ~ exp [α(p)N], whereas for p>p(c), T(c) ~ ln N. We conclude with simulation results for Erdős-Rényi random graphs and scale-free networks which show qualitatively similar behavior.

Structural bottlenecks for communication in networks

Sameet Sreenivasan, Reuven Cohen, Eduardo López, Zoltán Toroczkai, and H. Eugene Stanley Center for Polymer Studies and Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215 2 Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, MS B258, Los Alamos, NM 87545 3 Laboratory of Networking and Information Systems and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215 4 Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, MS B258, Los Alamos, NM 87545 (Dated: February 1, 2008)

Continuum percolation threshold for interpenetrating squares and cubes.

Monte Carlo simulations are performed to determine the critical percolation threshold for interpenetrating square objects in two dimensions and cubic objects in three dimensions. Simulations are performed for two cases: (i) objects whose edges are aligned parallel to one another and (ii) randomly oriented objects. For squares whose edges are aligned, the critical area fraction at the percolation threshold phi(c)=0.6666+/-0.0004, while for randomly oriented squares phi(c)=0.6254+/-0.0002, 6% smaller. For cubes whose edges are aligned, the critical volume fraction at the percolation threshold phi(c)=0.2773+/-0.0002, while for randomly oriented cubes phi(c)=0.2168+/-0.0002, 22% smaller.

Evolution of opinions on social networks in the presence of competing committed groups.

Public opinion is often affected by the presence of committed groups of individuals dedicated to competing points of view. Using a model of pairwise social influence, we study how the presence of such groups within social networks affects the outcome and the speed of evolution of the overall opinion on the network. Earlier work indicated that a single committed group within a dense social network can cause the entire network to quickly adopt the groups opinion (in times scaling logarithmically with the network size), so long as the committed group constitutes more than about of the population (with the findings being qualitatively similar for sparse networks as well). Here we study the more general case of opinion evolution when two groups committed to distinct, competing opinions and , and constituting fractions and of the total population respectively, are present in the network. We show for stylized social networks (including Erdös-Rényi random graphs and Barabási-Albert scale-free networks) that the phase diagram of this system in parameter space consists of two regions, one where two stable steady-states coexist, and the remaining where only a single stable steady-state exists. These two regions are separated by two fold-bifurcation (spinodal) lines which meet tangentially and terminate at a cusp (critical point). We provide further insights to the phase diagram and to the nature of the underlying phase transitions by investigating the model on infinite (mean-field limit), finite complete graphs and finite sparse networks. For the latter case, we also derive the scaling exponent associated with the exponential growth of switching times as a function of the distance from the critical point.

Threshold-limited spreading in social networks with multiple initiators

A classical model for social-influence-driven opinion change is the threshold model. Here we study cascades of opinion change driven by threshold model dynamics in the case where multiple initiators trigger the cascade, and where all nodes possess the same adoption threshold ϕ. Specifically, using empirical and stylized models of social networks, we study cascade size as a function of the initiator fraction p. We find that even for arbitrarily high value of ϕ, there exists a critical initiator fraction pc(ϕ) beyond which the cascade becomes global. Network structure, in particular clustering, plays a significant role in this scenario. Similarly to the case of single-node or single-clique initiators studied previously, we observe that community structure within the network facilitates opinion spread to a larger extent than a homogeneous random network. Finally, we study the efficacy of different initiator selection strategies on the size of the cascade and the cascade window.

Resilience of complex networks to random breakdown.

Using Monte Carlo simulations we calculate fc, the fraction of nodes that are randomly removed before global connectivity is lost, for networks with scale-free and bimodal degree distributions. Our results differ from the results predicted by an equation for fc proposed by Cohen We discuss the reasons for this disagreement and clarify the domain for which the proposed equation is valid.

Sequential detection of temporal communities by estrangement confinement

Temporal communities are the result of a consistent partitioning of nodes across multiple snapshots of an evolving network, and they provide insights into how dense clusters in a network emerge, combine, split and decay over time. To reliably detect temporal communities we need to not only find a good community partition in a given snapshot but also ensure that it bears some similarity to the partition(s) found in the previous snapshot(s), a particularly difficult task given the extreme sensitivity of community structure yielded by current methods to changes in the network structure. Here, motivated by the inertia of inter-node relationships, we present a new measure of partition distance called estrangement, and show that constraining estrangement enables one to find meaningful temporal communities at various degrees of temporal smoothness in diverse real-world datasets. Estrangement confinement thus provides a principled approach to uncovering temporal communities in evolving networks.

Optimization of network robustness to random breakdowns

We study network configurations that provide optimal robustness to random breakdowns for networks with a given number of nodes N and a given cost—which we take as the average number of connections per node 〈k〉. We find that the network design that maximizes fc, the fraction of nodes that are randomly removed before global connectivity is lost, consists of q=[(〈k〉-1)/〈k〉]N high degree nodes (“hubs”) of degree 〈k〉N and N-q nodes of degree 1. Also, we show that 1-fc approaches 0 as 1/N—faster than any other network configuration including scale-free networks. We offer a simple heuristic argument to explain our results.

Minimum Dominating Sets in Scale-Free Network Ensembles

We study the scaling behavior of the size of minimum dominating set (MDS) in scale-free networks, with respect to network size N and power-law exponent γ, while keeping the average degree fixed. We study ensembles generated by three different network construction methods, and we use a greedy algorithm to approximate the MDS. With a structural cutoff imposed on the maximal degree we find linear scaling of the MDS size with respect to N in all three network classes. Without any cutoff (kmax = N – 1) two of the network classes display a transition at γ ≈ 1.9, with linear scaling above, and vanishingly weak dependence below, but in the third network class we find linear scaling irrespective of γ. We find that the partial MDS, which dominates a given z < 1 fraction of nodes, displays essentially the same scaling behavior as the MDS.

Accelerating consensus on coevolving networks: the effect of committed individuals.

Social networks are not static but, rather, constantly evolve in time. One of the elements thought to drive the evolution of social network structure is homophily-the need for individuals to connect with others who are similar to them. In this paper, we study how the spread of a new opinion, idea, or behavior on such a homophily-driven social network is affected by the changing network structure. In particular, using simulations, we study a variant of the Axelrod model on a network with a homophily-driven rewiring rule imposed. First, we find that the presence of rewiring within the network, in general, impedes the reaching of consensus in opinion, as the time to reach consensus diverges exponentially with network size N. We then investigate whether the introduction of committed individuals who are rigid in their opinion on a particular issue can speed up the convergence to consensus on that issue. We demonstrate that as committed agents are added, beyond a critical value of the committed fraction, the consensus time growth becomes logarithmic in network size N. Furthermore, we show that slight changes in the interaction rule can produce strikingly different results in the scaling behavior of consensus time, T(c). However, the benefit gained by introducing committed agents is qualitatively preserved across all the interaction rules we consider.