Equilibrium statistical mechanics of network structures

We develop a statistical mechanics approach for random networks with uncorrelated vertices. We construct equilibrium statistical ensembles of such networks and obtain their partition functions and main characteristics. We find simple dynamical construction procedures that produce equilibrium uncorrelated random graphs with an arbitrary degree distribution. In particular, we show that in equilibrium uncorrelated networks, fat-tailed degree distributions may exist only starting...

1. Basic constructions. 2. Equilibrium and nonequilibrium networks. 3. Equilibrium uncorrelated networks. 4. Nonequilibrium nongrowing scale-free nets. 5. Types of correlations. 6. When pair correlations are important. 7. When loops are important. 8. Pair degree-degree correlations in growing networks. 9. How to construct an equilibrium net with given degree-degree correlations. 10. How to construct a growing scale-free net with a given clustering (towards a real-space renorm...

We study the family of network models derived by requiring the expected properties of a graph ensemble to match a given set of measurements of a real-world network, while maximizing the entropy of the ensemble. Models of this type play the same role in the study of networks as is played by the Boltzmann distribution in classical statistical mechanics; they offer the best prediction of network properties subject to the constraints imposed by a given set of observations. We giv...

We provide a phenomenological theory for topological transitions in restructuring networks. In this statistical mechanical approach energy is assigned to the different network topologies and temperature is used as a quantity referring to the level of noise during the rewiring of the edges. The associated microscopic dynamics satisfies the detailed balance condition and is equivalent to a lattice gas model on the edge-dual graph of a fully connected network. In our studies -- ...

We construct equilibrium networks by introducing an energy function depending on the degree of each node as well as the product of neighboring degrees. With this topological energy function, networks constitute a canonical ensemble, which follows the Boltzmann distribution for given temperature. It is observed that the system undergoes a topological phase transition from a random network to a star or a fully-connected network as the temperature is lowered. Both mean-field ana...

In the last 15 years, statistical physics has been a very successful framework to model complex networks. On the theoretical side, this approach has brought novel insights into a variety of physical phenomena, such as self-organisation, scale invariance, emergence of mixed distributions and ensemble non-equivalence, that display unconventional features on heterogeneous networks. At the same time, thanks to their deep connection with information theory, statistical physics and...

To provide a phenomenological theory for the various interesting transitions in restructuring networks we employ a statistical mechanical approach with detailed balance satisfied for the transitions between topological states. This enables us to establish an equivalence between the equilibrium rewiring problem we consider and the dynamics of a lattice gas on the edge-dual graph of a fully connected network. By assigning energies to the different network topologies and definin...

Many natural, technological and social systems are inherently not in equilibrium. We show, by detailed analysis of exemplar models, the emergence of equilibrium-like behavior in localized or nonlocalized domains within non-equilibrium systems as conjectured in some real systems. Equilibrium domains are shown to emerge either abruptly or gradually depending on the system parameters and disappear, becoming indistinguishable from the remainder of the system for other parameter v...

We discuss various aspects of the statistical formulation of the theory of random graphs, with emphasis on results obtained in a series of our recent publications.

Complex networks describe a wide range of systems in nature and society, much quoted examples including the cell, a network of chemicals linked by chemical reactions, or the Internet, a network of routers and computers connected by physical links. While traditionally these systems were modeled as random graphs, it is increasingly recognized that the topology and evolution of real networks is governed by robust organizing principles. Here we review the recent advances in the f...