Link communities reveal multiscale complexity in networks

Yong-Yeol Ahn, James P. Bagrow and Sune Lehmann ()
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Yong-Yeol Ahn: Center for Complex Network Research, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
James P. Bagrow: Center for Complex Network Research, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
Sune Lehmann: Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

Nature, 2010, vol. 466, issue 7307, 761-764

Abstract: Links key to network structure Network theory has become pervasive in all sectors of biology, from biochemical signalling patterns to the structure of human societies, but it has proved difficult to identify relevant functional communities because many nodes belong to several overlapping groups at once and are involved in hierarchical structures. Ahn et al., rather than considering nodes combining to form a tree or dendrogram as the natural community structure, suggest that communities of linkage can explain both overlap and hierarchical organization in networks. They use mobile-phone company records, representing the call patterns and locations of millions of users, to show that branches of the hierarchy are geographically correlated at multiple levels (neighbourhood, city and region) while keeping significant overlap. Linkage dendograms of this type are also demonstrated in published data on protein–protein interactions and metabolic networks.

Date: 2010
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DOI: 10.1038/nature09182

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