English

A mechanism for evolution of the physical concepts network

Physics and Society 2021-06-28 v2 Applied Physics

Abstract

We suggest an underlying mechanism that governs the growth of a network of concepts, a complex network that reflects the connections between different scientific concepts based on their co-occurrences in publications. To this end, we perform empirical analysis of a network of concepts based on the preprints in physics submitted to the arXiv.org. We calculate the network characteristics and show that they cannot follow as a result of several simple commonly used network growth models. In turn, we suggest that a simultaneous account of two factors, i.e., growth by blocks and preferential selection, gives an explanation of empirically observed properties of the concepts network. Moreover, the observed structure emerges as a synergistic effect of these both factors: each of them alone does not lead to a satisfactory picture.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2106.01022,
  title  = {A mechanism for evolution of the physical concepts network},
  author = {V. Palchykov and M. Krasnytska and O. Mryglod and Yu. Holovatch},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2106.01022},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

6 pages, 1 figure, 1 table

R2 v1 2026-06-24T02:44:33.190Z