The statistical mechanics of networks

We introduce and study a class of exchangeable random graph ensembles. They can be used as statistical null models for empirical networks, and as a tool for theoretical investigations. We provide general theorems that carachterize the degree distribution of the ensemble graphs, together with some features that are important for applications, such as subgraph distributions and kernel of the adjacency matrix. These results are used to compare to other models of simple and compl...

We define and study the statistical models in exponential family form whose sufficient statistics are the degree distributions and the bi-degree distributions of undirected labelled simple graphs. Graphs that are constrained by the joint degree distributions are called $dK$-graphs in the computer science literature and this paper attempts to provide the first statistically grounded analysis of this type of models. In addition to formalizing these models, we provide some preli...

We derive the sampling properties of random networks based on weights whose pairwise products parameterize independent Bernoulli trials. This enables an understanding of many degree-based network models, in which the structure of realized networks is governed by properties of their degree sequences. We provide exact results and large-sample approximations for power-law networks and other more general forms. This enables us to quantify sampling variability both within and acro...

Real-world social and economic networks typically display a number of particular topological properties, such as a giant connected component, a broad degree distribution, the small-world property and the presence of communities of densely interconnected nodes. Several models, including ensembles of networks also known in social science as Exponential Random Graphs, have been proposed with the aim of reproducing each of these properties in isolation. Here we define a generaliz...

In this paper we describe the emergence of scale-free degree distributions from statistical mechanics principles. We define an energy associated to a degree sequence as the logarithm of the number of indistinguishable simple networks it is possible to draw given the degree sequence. Keeping fixed the total number of nodes and links, we show that the energy of scale-free distribution is much higher than the energy associated to the degree sequence of regular random graphs. Thi...

We develop random graph models where graphs are generated by connecting not only pairs of vertices by edges but also larger subsets of vertices by copies of small atomic subgraphs of arbitrary topology. This allows the for the generation of graphs with extensive numbers of triangles and other network motifs commonly observed in many real world networks. More specifically we focus on maximum entropy ensembles under constraints placed on the counts and distributions of atomic s...

In the paper, we study fluctuations over several ensembles of maximum-entropy random networks. We derive several fluctuation-dissipation relations characterizing susceptibilities of different networks to changes in external fields. In the case of networks with a given degree sequence, we argue that the scale-free topologies of real-world networks may arise as a result of self-organization of real systems into sparse structures with low susceptibility to random external pertur...

Exchangeable models for countable vertex-labeled graphs cannot replicate the large sample behaviors of sparsity and power law degree distribution observed in many network datasets. Out of this mathematical impossibility emerges the question of how network data can be modeled in a way that reflects known empirical behaviors and respects basic statistical principles. We address this question by observing that edges, not vertices, act as the statistical units in networks constru...

Research on probabilistic models of networks now spans a wide variety of fields, including physics, sociology, biology, statistics, and machine learning. These efforts have produced a diverse ecology of models and methods. Despite this diversity, many of these models share a common underlying structure: pairwise interactions (edges) are generated with probability conditional on latent vertex attributes. Differences between models generally stem from different philosophical ch...

We develop a statistical theory of networks. A network is a set of vertices and links given by its adjacency matrix $\c$, and the relevant statistical ensembles are defined in terms of a partition function $Z=\sum_{\c} \exp {[}-\beta \H(\c) {]}$. The simplest cases are uncorrelated random networks such as the well-known Erd\"os-R\'eny graphs. Here we study more general interactions $\H(\c)$ which lead to {\em correlations}, for example, between the connectivities of adjacent ...