Explaining the emergence of complex networks through log-normal fitness in a Euclidean node similarity space

Smith, Keith Malcolm (2021) Explaining the emergence of complex networks through log-normal fitness in a Euclidean node similarity space. Scientific Reports, 11. 1976. ISSN 2045-2322 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81547-3)

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Abstract

Networks of disparate phenomena—be it the global ecology, human social institutions, within the human brain, or in micro-scale protein interactions—exhibit broadly consistent architectural features. To explain this, we propose a new theory where link probability is modelled by a log-normal node fitness (surface) factor and a latent Euclidean space-embedded node similarity (depth) factor. Building on recurring trends in the literature, the theory asserts that links arise due to individualistic as well as dyadic information and that important dyadic information making up the so-called depth factor is obscured by this essentially non-dyadic information making up the surface factor. Modelling based on this theory considerably outperforms popular power-law fitness and hyperbolic geometry explanations across 110 networks. Importantly, the degree distributions of the model resemble power-laws at small densities and log-normal distributions at larger densities, posing a reconciliatory solution to the long-standing debate on the nature and existence of scale-free networks. Validating this theory, a surface factor inversion approach on an economic world city network and an fMRI connectome results in considerably more geometrically aligned nearest neighbour networks, as is hypothesised to be the case for the depth factor. This establishes new foundations from which to understand, analyse, deconstruct and interpret network phenomena.

  • Item type:Article
    ID code:87332
    Dates:
    Date
    Event
    21 January 2021
    Published
    29 December 2020
    Accepted
    29 September 2020
    Submitted
    Subjects:Science > Mathematics
    Department:UNSPECIFIED
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:15 Nov 2023 14:26
    Last modified:11 Apr 2024 02:49
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/87332
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