The availability of large data sets have allowed researchers to uncover complex properties such as large scale fluctuations and heterogeneities in many networks which have lead to the breakdown of standard theoretical frameworks and models. Until recently these systems were considered as haphazard sets of points and connections. Recent advances have generated a vigorous research effort in understanding the effect of complex connectivity patterns on dynamical phenomena. For example, a vast number of everyday systems, from the brain to ecosystems, power grids and the Internet, can be represented as large complex networks. This new and recent account presents a comprehensive explanation of these effects.

A comprehensive introduction to the theory and applications of complex network science, complete with real-world data sets and software tools.

Illustrated throughout in full colour, this pioneering text is the only book you need for an introduction to network science.

This classroom-tested text is the definitive introduction to the mathematics of network science, featuring examples and numerous exercises.

From foundations to state-of-the-art; the tools and philosophy you need to build network models.

Analyzing the behavior of complex networks is an important element in the design of new man-made structures such as communication systems and biologically engineered molecules. Because any complex network can be represented by a graph, and therefore in turn by a matrix, graph theory has become a powerful tool in the investigation of network performance. This self-contained 2010 book provides a concise introduction to the theory of graph spectra and its applications to the study of complex networks. Covering a range of types of graphs and topics important to the analysis of complex systems, this guide provides the mathematical foundation needed to understand and apply spectral insight to real-world systems. In particular, the general properties of both the adjacency and Laplacian spectrum of graphs are derived and applied to complex networks. An ideal resource for researchers and students in communications networking as well as in physics and mathematics.

This book brings together two emerging research areas: synchronization in coupled nonlinear systems and complex networks, and study conditions under which a complex network of dynamical systems synchronizes. While there are many texts that study synchronization in chaotic systems or properties of complex networks, there are few texts that consider the intersection of these two very active and interdisciplinary research areas. The main theme of this book is that synchronization conditions can be related to graph theoretical properties of the underlying coupling topology. The book introduces ideas from systems theory, linear algebra and graph theory and the synergy between them that are necessary to derive synchronization conditions. Many of the results, which have been obtained fairly recently and have until now not appeared in textbook form, are presented with complete proofs. This text is suitable for graduate-level study or for researchers who would like to be better acquainted with the latest research in this area. Sample Chapter(s). Chapter 1: Introduction (76 KB). Contents: Graphs, Networks, Laplacian Matrices and Algebraic Connectivity; Graph Models; Synchronization in Networks of Nonlinear Continuous-Time Dynamical Systems; Synchronization in Networks of Coupled Discrete-Time Systems; Synchronization in Network of Systems with Linear Dynamics; Agreement and Consensus Problems in Groups of Interacting Agents. Readership: Graduate students and researchers in physics, applied mathematics and engineering.

Publisher description

Networks can provide a useful model and graphic image useful for the description of a wide variety of web-like structures in the physical and man-made realms, e.g. protein networks, food webs and the Internet. The contributions gathered in the present volume provide both an introduction to, and an overview of, the multifaceted phenomenology of complex networks. Statistical Mechanics of Complex Networks also provides a state-of-the-art picture of current theoretical methods and approaches.

This book aims to explain the basics of graph theory that are needed at an introductory level for students in computer or information sciences. To motivate students and to show that even these basic notions can be extremely useful, the book also aims to provide an introduction to the modern field of network science. Mathematics is often unnecessarily difficult for students, at times even intimidating. For this reason, explicit attention is paid in the first chapters to mathematical notations and proof techniques, emphasizing that the notations form the biggest obstacle, not the mathematical concepts themselves. This approach allows to gradually prepare students for using tools that are necessary to put graph theory to work: complex networks. In the second part of the book the student learns about random networks, small worlds, the structure of the Internet and the Web, peer-to-peer systems, and social networks. Again, everything is discussed at an elementary level, but such that in the end students indeed have the feeling that they: 1.Have learned how to read and understand the basic mathematics related to graph theory. 2.Understand how basic graph theory can be applied to optimization problems such as routing in communication networks. 3.Know a bit more about this sometimes mystical field of small worlds and random networks. There is an accompanying web site www.distributed-systems.net/gtcn from where supplementary material can be obtained, including exercises, Mathematica notebooks, data for analyzing graphs, and generators for various complex networks.