Measure for characterizing heavy-tailed networks
The phrase “scale-free network” has become controversial in recent years, as network scientists debate what it means for a finite degree sequence to fit a power-law distribution. In practical terms, however, most network scientists use the phrase to indicate that a network has hubs, and so it would...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Physical Society
2021-06-01
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| Series: | Physical Review Research |
| Online Access: | http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.023257 |
| _version_ | 1797210997015969792 |
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| author | Sam A. Hill |
| author_facet | Sam A. Hill |
| author_sort | Sam A. Hill |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The phrase “scale-free network” has become controversial in recent years, as network scientists debate what it means for a finite degree sequence to fit a power-law distribution. In practical terms, however, most network scientists use the phrase to indicate that a network has hubs, and so it would be useful to be able to talk about such networks without reference to power laws at all. This paper presents the Cooke-Nieboer index (CNI), a nonasymptotic measure of the heavy-tailedness of a network's empirical degree distribution which does not presume a power-law form. The CNI is easy to calculate and is able to distinguish between synthetic networks with power-law, exponential, and symmetric degree distributions. It serves as a complementary measure to the traditional tail-index estimators and reflects certain properties in real-life networks better than the estimators do. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T10:19:29Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-73a29bd9ebb6431ca044ebd1b8983c5d |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2643-1564 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T10:19:29Z |
| publishDate | 2021-06-01 |
| publisher | American Physical Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Physical Review Research |
| spelling | doaj.art-73a29bd9ebb6431ca044ebd1b8983c5d2024-04-12T17:11:14ZengAmerican Physical SocietyPhysical Review Research2643-15642021-06-013202325710.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.023257Measure for characterizing heavy-tailed networksSam A. HillThe phrase “scale-free network” has become controversial in recent years, as network scientists debate what it means for a finite degree sequence to fit a power-law distribution. In practical terms, however, most network scientists use the phrase to indicate that a network has hubs, and so it would be useful to be able to talk about such networks without reference to power laws at all. This paper presents the Cooke-Nieboer index (CNI), a nonasymptotic measure of the heavy-tailedness of a network's empirical degree distribution which does not presume a power-law form. The CNI is easy to calculate and is able to distinguish between synthetic networks with power-law, exponential, and symmetric degree distributions. It serves as a complementary measure to the traditional tail-index estimators and reflects certain properties in real-life networks better than the estimators do.http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.023257 |
| spellingShingle | Sam A. Hill Measure for characterizing heavy-tailed networks Physical Review Research |
| title | Measure for characterizing heavy-tailed networks |
| title_full | Measure for characterizing heavy-tailed networks |
| title_fullStr | Measure for characterizing heavy-tailed networks |
| title_full_unstemmed | Measure for characterizing heavy-tailed networks |
| title_short | Measure for characterizing heavy-tailed networks |
| title_sort | measure for characterizing heavy tailed networks |
| url | http://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.023257 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT samahill measureforcharacterizingheavytailednetworks |