Communicability in complex networks
Open accessAbstract
We propose a new measure of the communicability of a complex network, which is a broad generalization of the concept of the shortest path. According to the new measure, most of the real-world networks display the largest communicability between the most connected (popular) nodes of the network (assortative communicability). There are also several networks with the disassortative communicability, where the most "popular" nodes communicate very poorly to each other. Using this information we classify a diverse set of real-world complex systems into a small number of universality classes based on their structure-dynamic correlation. In addition, the new communicability measure is able to distinguish finer structures of networks, such as communities into which a network is divided. A community is unambiguously defined here as a set of nodes displaying larger communicability among them than to the rest of the nodes in the network.
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Recent work has focused on alternative models of connectome communication, including network diffusion, linear transmission models, and navigation.
“In light of these shortcomings, recent work has stated to focus on alternative models of connectome communication, such as network diffusion (Estrada and Hatano, 2008; Goñi et al., 2014), linear transmission models (Mišić et al., 2015), and navigation (Seguin et al., 2018) (see Avena-Koenigsberger et al., 2018 for a review).”
From Quantitative mapping of the brain’s structural connectivity using diffusion MRI tractography: A review (2022) · cites this paper as Estrada and Hatano, 2008
The section “Communicability as the Green’s function of networks” (p. 4) explicitly interprets the model as particle diffusion on a complex network, supporting its citation as an alternative to shortest-path communication. The paper does not study connectomes specifically, so it does not support that setting-specific part of the sentence. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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Flagged first, then by citations
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- Authors
- Estrada, E., & Hatano, N.
- Affiliations
- Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (ES)
- Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo (JP)
- Venue
- Physical Review E
- Publisher
- American Physical Society (APS)
- Published
- 2008-03-11
- Volume
- 77
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 036111-036111
- ISSN
- 1539-3755 (ISSN-L)
- 1550-2376
- OpenAlex
- W1995876521
- Cited by
- 719
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2026: 20 · 2025: 51 · 2024: 42 · 2023: 57 · 2022: 44 · 2021: 43 · 2020: 58 · 2019: 42 · 2018: 77 · 2017: 48 · 2016: 56 · 2015: 37 · 2014: 44 · 2013: 26 · 2012: 23
- FWCI
- 12.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- arxiv.org
- Locations
- Physical Review E (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- Strathprints: The University of Strathclyde institutional repository (University of Strathclyde) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Complex Network Analysis Techniques
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Geometry and Topology › Graph theory and applications
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Complex Systems and Time Series Analysis
- Keywords
- transmissibility, complex networks, shortest path, structure-dynamics correlation, community detection, node centrality
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