Eur. Phys. J. B 64, 585-591 (2008)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2008-00243-5

A self-organized model for network evolution

Coupling network evolution and extremal dynamics

¹ INFM-CNR Centro SMC Dipartimento di Fisica, Università “Sapienza” Piazzale Aldo Moro 2, 00185 Roma, Italy
² Centro Studi e Ricerche e Museo della Fisica “Enrico Fermi” Compendio Viminale, 00185 Roma, Italy
³ Linkalab, Center for Complex Networks Research, Sardegna, Italy
⁴ Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica, Università Sapienza via Salaria 113, 00185 Roma, Italy
⁵ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Siena, Via Roma 56, 53100 Siena, Italy

Corresponding author: ^a Guido.Caldarelli@romal.infn.it

Received: 9 October 2007
Revised: 6 May 2008
Published online: 27 June 2008

Abstract

Here we provide a detailed analysis, along with some extensions and additonal investigations, of a recently proposed [1] self-organized model for the evolution of complex networks. Vertices of the network are characterized by a fitness variable evolving through an extremal dynamics process, as in the Bak–Sneppen [2] model representing a prototype of Self-Organized Criticality. The network topology is in turn shaped by the fitness variable itself, as in the fitness network model [3]. The system self-organizes to a nontrivial state, characterized by a power-law decay of dynamical and topological quantities above a critical threshold. The interplay between topology and dynamics in the system is the key ingredient leading to an unexpected behaviour of these quantities.