A new measure of network efficiency

Nicholas W. Hollingshad, Malgorzata Turalska, Paolo Allegrini, Bruce J. West and Paolo Grigolini

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2012, vol. 391, issue 4, 1894-1899

Abstract: We address the issue of the dynamical origin of scale-free link distributions. We study a two-dimensional lattice of cooperatively interacting units. Although the units interact only with the four nearest neighbors, a sufficiently large cooperation strength generates dynamically a scale-free network with the power law index ν approaching 1. We explain this result by using a new definition of network efficiency determined by the Euclidean distance between correlated units. According to this definition the link distribution favoring long-range connections makes efficiency increase. We embed an ad hoc scale-free network with power index ν≥1 into a Euclidean two-dimensional space and show that the network efficiency becomes maximal as ν approaches 1. We therefore conclude that ν=1 emerging from the cooperative interaction of units may be a consequence of the principle of network maximal efficiency.

Keywords: Network (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437111008521
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000

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:phsmap:v:391:y:2012:i:4:p:1894-1899

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2011.11.017

Access Statistics for this article

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications is currently edited by K. A. Dawson, J. O. Indekeu, H.E. Stanley and C. Tsallis

More articles in Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().