Dismantling directed networks: A multi-temporal information field approach

Min Wu, Jianhong Mou, Bitao Dai, Suoyi Tan and Xin Lu

Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, 2025, vol. 196, issue C

Abstract: While network robustness is often assessed via structural connectivity, this approach does not fully capture the performance of complex systems, which also depends on information flow among internal components. In this paper, we focus on the robustness of directed networks by proposing a framework to dismantle both their information flow and connectivity. Specifically, we develop a multi-temporal information field model for directed networks based on quantum mechanics, and construct the Directed Node Entanglement (DNE) centrality metric using a generalized network density matrix. We first investigate the impact of time scale on DNE and find that its dismantling performance is optimal at a smaller τ. Consequently, we approximate DNE at these scales using mean-field theory and validate the accuracy of our approximation. Moreover, extensive targeted attack experiments on real-world networks show that DNE effectively disrupts both information flow and connectivity, achieving improvement rates of up to 21.34 % and 40.39 %, respectively. Finally, correlation analyses indicate that DNE accounts for both high outward connectivity and bridging potential, offering a distinct perspective on node importance in directed networks. In summary, our study extends the information field model to directed networks and investigates both their information flow and connectivity, providing valuable insights into network robustness.

Keywords: Complex networks; Network dismantling; Directed network; Information flow; Directed network entanglement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960077925004175
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:chsofr:v:196:y:2025:i:c:s0960077925004175

DOI: 10.1016/j.chaos.2025.116404

Access Statistics for this article

Chaos, Solitons & Fractals is currently edited by Stefano Boccaletti and Stelios Bekiros

More articles in Chaos, Solitons & Fractals from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Thayer, Thomas R. ().