2009/02/01 by Laszlo Lovasz, Lovasz, Laszlo
Computer Science · Mathematics · #05C35 #05C80 #05C85 #Advanced Graph Theory Research #Combinatorics (math.CO) #FOS: Mathematics #Graph Labeling and Dimension Problems #Graph theory and applications #Probability (math.PR)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0902.0132
openalex publication_date 2009/02/01 · openalex created_date 2024/04/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In the last decade it became apparent that a large number of the most interesting structures and phenomena of the world can be described by networks: separable elements, with connections (or interactions) between certain pairs of them. These huge networks pose exciting challenges for the mathematician. Graph Theory (the mathematical theory of networks) faces novel, unconventional problems: these very large networks (like the Internet) are never completely known, in most cases they are not even well defined. Data about them can be collected only by indirect means like random local sampling. Dense networks (in which a node is adjacent to a positive percent of others nodes) and sparse networks (in which a node has a bounded number of neighbors) show very different behavior. From a practical point of view, sparse networks are more important, but at present we have more complete theoretical results for dense networks. The paper surveys relations with probability, algebra, extrema graph theory, and analysis.