Seeking for simplicity in complex networks

Instituto de Física de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo - Av. Trabalhador São Carlense 400, Caixa Postal 369, CEP 13560-970, São Carlos, São Paulo, Brazil

Corresponding author: luciano@if.sc.usp.br

Received: 5 November 2008
Accepted: 6 February 2009

Abstract

Complex networks can be understood as graphs whose connectivity properties deviate from those of regular or near-regular graphs, which are understood as being “simple”. While a great deal of the attention so far dedicated to complex networks has been duly driven by the “complex” nature of these structures, in this work we address the identification of their simplicity. The basic idea is to seek for subgraphs whose nodes exhibit similar measurements. This approach paves the way for complementing the characterization of networks, including results suggesting that the protein-protein interaction networks, and to a lesser extent also the Internet, may be getting simpler over time.