A Note on Computing Betweenness Centrality from the 2-core
Abstract
A central task in network analysis is to identify important nodes in a graph. Betweenness centrality (BC) is a popular centrality measure that captures the significance of nodes based on the number of shortest paths each node intersects with. In this note, we derive a recursive formula to compute the betweenness centralities of a graph from the betweenness centralities of its 2-core.Furthermore, we analyze mathematically the significant impact of removing degree-one nodes on the estimation of betweenness centrality within the context of the popular pivot sampling scheme for Single-Source Shortest Path (SSSP) computations, as described in the Brandes-Pich approach and implemented in widely used software such as NetworkX. We demonstrate both theoretically and empirically that removing degree-1 nodes can reduce the sample complexity needed to achieve better accuracy, thereby decreasing the overall runtime.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2408.01157,
title = {A Note on Computing Betweenness Centrality from the 2-core},
author = {Charalampos E. Tsourakakis},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2408.01157},
year = {2024}
}
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21 pages