2004/10/31 by Petter Holme · 7 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Complex Network Analysis Techniques #Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence #Opportunistic and Delay-Tolerant Networks #cond-mat.other
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.71.046119
published as Phys. Rev. E 71, 046119 (2005) · (v2: fig. 1 fixed)
arxiv created 2004/11/12 · openalex publication_date 2005/04/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We use real-world contact sequences, time-ordered lists of contacts from one person to another, to study how fast information or disease can spread across network of contacts. Specifically we measure the reachability time--the average shortest time for a series of contacts to spread information between a reachable pair of vertices (a pair where a chain of contacts exists leading from one person to the other)--and the reachability ratio--the fraction of reachable vertex pairs. These measures are studied using conditional uniform graph tests. We conclude, among other things, that the network reachability depends much on a core where the path lengths are short and communication frequent, that clustering of the contacts of an edge in time tends to decrease the reachability, and that the order of the contacts really does make sense for dynamical spreading processes.