Small but slow world: How network topology and burstiness slow down spreading

2010/06/30 by Márton Karsai, M. Karsai, M. Kivelä +11 · 1 citation
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #Complex Network Analysis Techniques #Human Mobility and Location-Based Analysis #Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence #cs.SI #nlin.AO #physics.bio-ph #physics.soc-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.83.025102

published as Phys. Rev. E 83, 025102(R) (2011)

arxiv created 2010/08/22 · openalex publication_date 2011/02/18 · arxiv updated 2011/02/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

While communication networks show the small-world property of short paths, the spreading dynamics in them turns out slow. Here, the time evolution of information propagation is followed through communication networks by using empirical data on contact sequences and the susceptible-infected model. Introducing null models where event sequences are appropriately shuffled, we are able to distinguish between the contributions of different impeding effects. The slowing down of spreading is found to be caused mainly by weight-topology correlations and the bursty activity patterns of individuals.

Citations

• Network reachability of real-world contact sequences
• Broad lifetime distributions for ordering dynamics in complex networks
• Analysis of a large-scale weighted network of one-to-one human communication
• Impact of Human Activity Patterns on the Dynamics of Information Diffusion
• The Strength of Weak Ties

Cited by

• The interplay of network structure and correlated infectious traits in epidemic models