Yamir Moreno

Synchronization in complex networks

Synchronization in complex networks Alex Arenas, 1, 2, 3 Albert D´ iaz-Guilera, 4, 2 Jurgen Kurths, 5 Yamir Moreno, 2, 6 and Changsong Zhou 7 Departament d’Enginyeria Inform` tica i Matem` tiques, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43007 Tarragona, Spain a a Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems (BIFI), University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza 50009, Spain Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720 Departament de F´ isica Fonamental, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Spain Institute of Physics, University of Potsdam PF 601553, 14415 Potsdam, Germany Department of Theoretical Physics, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza 50009, Spain Department of Physics, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowloon Tong, Hong Kong (Dated: February 6, 2008) Synchronization processes in populations of locally interacting elements are in the focus of intense research in physical, biological, chemical, technological and social systems. The many efforts de- voted to understand synchronization phenomena in natural systems take now 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 overview the new emergent features coming out from the interplay between the structure and the function of the underlying pattern of connections. Extensive nu- merical 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. PACS numbers: 05.45.Xt,89.75.Fb,89.75.Hc Contents I. Introduction II. Complex networks in a nutshell III. Coupled phase oscillator models on complex networks A. Phase oscillators 1. The Kuramoto model 2. Kuramoto model on complex networks 3. Onset of synchronization in complex networks 4. Path towards synchronization in complex networks 5. Kuramoto model on structured or modular networks 6. Synchronization by pacemakers B. Pulse-coupled models C. Coupled maps IV. Stability of the synchronized state in complex networks A. Master Stability Function formalism 1. Linear Stability and Master Stability Function 2. Measures of synchronizability 3. Synchronizability of typical network models 4. Synchronizability and structural characteristics of networks 5. Graph theoretical bounds to synchronizability 6. Synchronizability of weighted networks 7. Universal parameters controlling the synchronizability B. Design of synchronizable networks 1. Weighted couplings for enhancing synchronizability 2. Topological modification for enhancing synchronizability 3. Optimization of synchronizability C. Beyond the Master Stability Function formalism V. Applications A. Biological systems and neuroscience 1. Genetic networks 2. Circadian rhythms 3. Ecology 4. Neuronal networks 5. Cortical networks B. Computer science and engineering 1. Parallel/Distributed computation 2. Data mining 3. Consensus problems 4. Communication networks 5. Material and traffic flow 6. Power-grids C. Social sciences and economy 1. Opinion formation 2. Finance 3. World Trade Web D. Perspectives VI. Conclusions Acknowledgments References I. INTRODUCTION Synchronization, as an emerging phenomenon of a pop- ulation of dynamically interacting units, has fascinated humans from ancestral times. No matter whether the phenomenon is spontaneous or induced, synchronization captivates our minds and becomes one of the most in- teresting scientific problems. Synchronization processes are ubiquitous in nature and play a very important role in many different contexts as biology, ecology, climatol- ogy, sociology, technology, or even in arts ((Osipov et al., 2007; Pikovsky et al., 2001). It is known that synchrony

Epidemic outbreaks in complex heterogeneous networks

Abstract:We present a detailed analytical and numerical study for the spreading of infections with acquired immunity in complex population networks. We show that the large connectivity fluctuations usually found in these networks strengthen considerably the incidence of epidemic outbreaks. Scale-free networks, which are characterized by diverging connectivity fluctuations in the limit of a very large number of nodes, exhibit the lack of an epidemic threshold and always show a finite fraction of infected individuals. This particular weakness, observed also in models without immunity, defines a new epidemiological framework characterized by a highly heterogeneous response of the system to the introduction of infected individuals with different connectivity. The understanding of epidemics in complex networks might deliver new insights in the spread of information and diseases in biological and technological networks that often appear to be characterized by complex heterogeneous architectures.

Evolutionary dynamics of group interactions on structured populations: a review

Interactions among living organisms, from bacteria colonies to human societies, are inherently more complex than interactions among particles and non-living matter. Group interactions are a particularly important and widespread class, representative of which is the public goods game. In addition, methods of statistical physics have proved valuable for studying pattern formation, equilibrium selection and self-organization in evolutionary games. Here, we review recent advances in the study of evolutionary dynamics of group interactions on top of structured populations, including lattices, complex networks and coevolutionary models. We also compare these results with those obtained on well-mixed populations. The review particularly highlights that the study of the dynamics of group interactions, like several other important equilibrium and non-equilibrium dynamical processes in biological, economical and social sciences, benefits from the synergy between statistical physics, network science and evolutionary game theory.

Dynamics of rumor spreading in complex networks

We derive the mean-field equations characterizing the dynamics of a rumor process that takes place on top of complex heterogeneous networks. These equations are solved numerically by means of a stochastic approach. First, we present analytical and Monte Carlo calculations for homogeneous networks and compare the results with those obtained by the numerical method. Then, we study the spreading process in detail for random scale-free networks. The time profiles for several quantities are numerically computed, which allows us to distinguish among different variants of rumor spreading algorithms. Our conclusions are directed to possible applications in replicated database maintenance, peer-to-peer communication networks, and social spreading phenomena.

Theory of rumour spreading in complex social networks

We introduce a general stochastic model for the spread of rumours, and derive mean-field equations that describe the dynamics of the model on complex social networks (in particular, those mediated by the Internet). We use analytical and numerical solutions of these equations to examine the threshold behaviour and dynamics of the model on several models of such networks: random graphs, uncorrelated scale-free networks and scale-free networks with assortative degree correlations. We show that in both homogeneous networks and random graphs the model exhibits a critical threshold in the rumour spreading rate below which a rumour cannot propagate in the system. In the case of scale-free networks, on the other hand, this threshold becomes vanishingly small in the limit of infinite system size. We find that the initial rate at which a rumour spreads is much higher in scale-free networks than in random graphs, and that the rate at which the spreading proceeds on scale-free networks is further increased when assortative degree correlations are introduced. The impact of degree correlations on the final fraction of nodes that ever hears a rumour, however, depends on the interplay between network topology and the rumour spreading rate. Our results show that scale-free social networks are prone to the spreading of rumours, just as they are to the spreading of infections. They are relevant to the spreading dynamics of chain emails, viral advertising and large-scale information dissemination algorithms on the Internet.

Diffusion dynamics on multiplex networks.

We study the time scales associated with diffusion processes that take place on multiplex networks, i.e., on a set of networks linked through interconnected layers. To this end, we propose the construction of a supra-laplacian matrix, which consists of a dimensional lifting of the laplacian matrix of each layer of the multiplex network. We use perturbative analysis to reveal analytically the structure of eigenvectors and eigenvalues of the complete network in terms of the spectral properties of the individual layers. The spectrum of the supra-laplacian allows us to understand the physics of diffusionlike processes on top of multiplex networks.

The Dynamics of Protest Recruitment through an Online Network

The recent wave of mobilizations in the Arab world and across Western countries has generated much discussion on how digital media is connected to the diffusion of protests. We examine that connection using data from the surge of mobilizations that took place in Spain in May 2011. We study recruitment patterns in the Twitter network and find evidence of social influence and complex contagion. We identify the network position of early participants (i.e. the leaders of the recruitment process) and of the users who acted as seeds of message cascades (i.e. the spreaders of information). We find that early participants cannot be characterized by a typical topological position but spreaders tend to be more central in the network. These findings shed light on the connection between online networks, social contagion, and collective dynamics, and offer an empirical test to the recruitment mechanisms theorized in formal models of collective action.

Mathematical Formulation of Multilayer Networks

A network representation is useful for describing the structure of a large variety of complex systems. However, most real and engineered systems have multiple subsystems and layers of connectivity, and the data produced by such systems are very rich. Achieving a deep understanding of such systems necessitates generalizing ‘‘traditional’’ network theory, and the newfound deluge of data now makes it possible to test increasingly general frameworks for the study of networks. In particular, although adjacency matrices are useful to describe traditional single-layer networks, such a representation is insufficient for the analysis and description of multiplex and time-dependent networks. One must therefore develop a more general mathematical framework to cope with the challenges posed by multilayer complex systems. In this paper, we introduce a tensorial framework to study multilayer networks, and we discuss the generalization of several important network descriptors and dynamical processes—including degree centrality, clustering coefficients, eigenvector centrality, modularity, von Neumann entropy, and diffusion—for this framework. We examine the impact of different choices in constructing these generalizations, and we illustrate how to obtain known results for the special cases of single-layer and multiplex networks. Our tensorial approach will be helpful for tackling pressing problems in multilayer complex systems, such as inferring who is influencing whom (and by which media) in multichannel social networks and developing routing techniques for multimodal transportation systems.

Improved routing strategies for Internet traffic delivery.

We analyze different strategies aimed at optimizing routing policies in the Internet. We first show that for a simple deterministic algorithm the local properties of the network deeply influence the time needed for packet delivery between two arbitrarily chosen nodes. We next rely on a real Internet map at the autonomous system level and introduce a score function that allows us to examine different routing protocols and their efficiency in traffic handling and packet delivery. Our results suggest that actual mechanisms are not the most efficient and that they can be integrated in a more general, though not too complex, scheme.

Heterogeneous networks do not promote cooperation when humans play a Prisoner’s Dilemma

It is not fully understood why we cooperate with strangers on a daily basis. In an increasingly global world, where interaction networks and relationships between individuals are becoming more complex, different hypotheses have been put forward to explain the foundations of human cooperation on a large scale and to account for the true motivations that are behind this phenomenon. In this context, population structure has been suggested to foster cooperation in social dilemmas, but theoretical studies of this mechanism have yielded contradictory results so far; additionally, the issue lacks a proper experimental test in large systems. We have performed the largest experiments to date with humans playing a spatial Prisoner’s Dilemma on a lattice and a scale-free network (1,229 subjects). We observed that the level of cooperation reached in both networks is the same, comparable with the level of cooperation of smaller networks or unstructured populations. We have also found that subjects respond to the cooperation that they observe in a reciprocal manner, being more likely to cooperate if, in the previous round, many of their neighbors and themselves did so, which implies that humans do not consider neighbors’ payoffs when making their decisions in this dilemma but only their actions. Our results, which are in agreement with recent theoretical predictions based on this behavioral rule, suggest that population structure has little relevance as a cooperation promoter or inhibitor among humans.