6533b82bfe1ef96bd128e369

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Community characterization of heterogeneous complex systems

Jan VarhoFabrizio LilloFabrizio LilloSalvatore MiccichèJyrki PiiloMichele TumminelloMichele TumminelloRosario N. Mantegna

subject

FOS: Computer and information sciencesStatistics and Probabilityrandom graphs networks statistical inference socio-economic networksPhysics - Physics and SocietyTheoretical computer scienceProperty (programming)Complex systemFOS: Physical sciencesPhysics and Society (physics.soc-ph)socio-economic networksStatistical inferenceSocial and Information Networks (cs.SI)Random graphComputer Science - Social and Information NetworksStatistical and Nonlinear PhysicsProbability and statisticsComplex networkSettore FIS/07 - Fisica Applicata(Beni Culturali Ambientali Biol.e Medicin)Hypergeometric distributionPhysics - Data Analysis Statistics and ProbabilitynetworkStatistics Probability and UncertaintyNull hypothesisData Analysis Statistics and Probability (physics.data-an)random graphstatistical inference

description

We introduce an analytical statistical method to characterize the communities detected in heterogeneous complex systems. By posing a suitable null hypothesis, our method makes use of the hypergeometric distribution to assess the probability that a given property is over-expressed in the elements of a community with respect to all the elements of the investigated set. We apply our method to two specific complex networks, namely a network of world movies and a network of physics preprints. The characterization of the elements and of the communities is done in terms of languages and countries for the movie network and of journals and subject categories for papers. We find that our method is able to characterize clearly the identified communities. Moreover our method works well both for large and for small communities.

https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-5468/2011/01/p01019