Article Saying Hierarchy May Be a Fundamental Organizational Principle for Complex Networks

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New technique for extracting hierarchical structure of networks

KurzweilAI.net, May 2, 2008

Santa Fe Institute researchers have demonstrated that many real-world networks can be understood as a hierarchy of modules, where nodes cluster together to form modules, which themselves cluster into larger modules--arrangements similar to the organization of sports players into teams, teams into conferences, and conferences into leagues.

This hierarchical organization can simultaneously explain a number of patterns previously discovered in networks, such as the surprising heterogeneity in the number of connections some nodes have, or the prevalence of triangles in a network diagram.

This result suggests that hierarchy may be a fundamental organizational principle for complex networks.

Santa Fe Institute News Release