Network Science is not scale invariant
Visiting speaker
Santo Fortunato
Visiting Professor, Indiana University
Past Talk
Hybrid talk
Friday
Oct 27, 2023
Watch video
4:00 pm
EST
Virtual
177 Huntington Ave.
11th floor
11th floor
Devon House
58 St Katharine's Way
London E1W 1LP, UK
58 St Katharine's Way
London E1W 1LP, UK
In many complex networks, the unit adopted to measure the edge weightsis arbitrary and immaterial. Therefore, we argue that rescaling theweight of all edges of any network by a constant factor should notaffect any conclusion or deduction we can make on the system. Whileall network science metrics are indeed invariant with respect to thischange of scale, we show that the assessment of the statistical significanceof the values of these score is instead scale-dependent, with respect tocurrent null models. The reason lies in the peculiar probabilitydistribution the null models are based on. This result calls for amodification of current null models, or at least a redefinition oftheir extension to weighted networks.
About the speaker
About the speaker
Santo Fortunato is a Professor at Luddy School of Informatics,
Computing, and Engineering of Indiana University. Previously he was
professor of complex systems at the Department of Computer Science of
Aalto University, Finland. Prof. Fortunato got his PhD in Theoretical
Particle Physics at the University of Bielefeld In Germany. His focus
areas are network science, especially community detection in graphs,
computational social science and science of science. His research has
been published in leading journals, including Nature, Science, Nature
Physics, PNAS, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review X, Reviews of
Modern Physics, Physics Reports and has collected over 44,000
citations (Google Scholar). His single-author article Community
detection in graphs (Physics Reports 486, 75-174, 2010) is one of the
best known and most cited papers in network science. Fortunato
received the Young Scientist Award for Socio- and Econophysics 2011, a
prize given by the German Physical Society, for his outstanding
contributions to the physics of social systems. He is Fellow of the
Network Science Society (2022) and of the American Physical Society
(2022). He is the Founding Chair of the International Conference of
Computational Social Science (IC2S2), which he first organized in
Helsinki in June 2015. He was Chair of Networks 2021, the largest ever
event on network science, a historical merger of the NetSci and
Sunbelt conferences. He is author of the book A First Course in
Network Science, by Cambridge University Press (2020), the most
accessible textbook on the new science of networks.
Santo Fortunato is a Professor at Luddy School of Informatics,
Computing, and Engineering of Indiana University. Previously he was
professor of complex systems at the Department of Computer Science of
Aalto University, Finland. Prof. Fortunato got his PhD in Theoretical
Particle Physics at the University of Bielefeld In Germany. His focus
areas are network science, especially community detection in graphs,
computational social science and science of science. His research has
been published in leading journals, including Nature, Science, Nature
Physics, PNAS, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review X, Reviews of
Modern Physics, Physics Reports and has collected over 44,000
citations (Google Scholar). His single-author article Community
detection in graphs (Physics Reports 486, 75-174, 2010) is one of the
best known and most cited papers in network science. Fortunato
received the Young Scientist Award for Socio- and Econophysics 2011, a
prize given by the German Physical Society, for his outstanding
contributions to the physics of social systems. He is Fellow of the
Network Science Society (2022) and of the American Physical Society
(2022). He is the Founding Chair of the International Conference of
Computational Social Science (IC2S2), which he first organized in
Helsinki in June 2015. He was Chair of Networks 2021, the largest ever
event on network science, a historical merger of the NetSci and
Sunbelt conferences. He is author of the book A First Course in
Network Science, by Cambridge University Press (2020), the most
accessible textbook on the new science of networks.
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