English

The Irreducible Spine(s) of Undirected Networks

Discrete Mathematics 2013-07-10 v1 Combinatorics

Abstract

Using closure concepts, we show that within every undirected network, or graph, there is a unique irreducible subgraph which we call its "spine". The chordless cycles which comprise this irreducible core effectively characterize the connectivity structure of the network as a whole. In particular, it is shown that the center of the network, whether defined by distance or betweenness centrality, is effectively contained in this spine. By counting the number of cycles of length 3 <= k <= max_length, we can also create a kind of signature that can be used to identify the network. Performance is analyzed, and the concepts we develop are illurstrated by means of a relatively small running sample network of about 400 nodes.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1307.2467,
  title  = {The Irreducible Spine(s) of Undirected Networks},
  author = {John L. Pfaltz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1307.2467},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

Submitted to WISE 2013