relation: http://eprints.imtlucca.it/1121/
title: Preferential exchange: strengthening connections in complex networks
creator: Caldarelli, Guido
creator: Coccetti, Fabrizio
creator: De Los Rios, Paolo
subject: QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
subject: QC Physics
description: Many social, technological, and biological interactions involve network relationships whose outcome intimately depends on the structure of the network and on the strengths of the connections. Yet, although much information is now available concerning the structure of many networks, the strengths are more difficult to measure. Here we show that, for one particular social network, notably the e-mail network, a suitable measure of the strength of the connections can be available. We also propose a simple mechanism, based on positive feedback and reciprocity, that can explain the observed behavior and that hints toward specific dynamics of formation and reinforcement of network connections. Network data from contexts different from social sciences indicate that power-law, and generally broad, distributions of the connection strength are ubiquitous, and the proposed mechanism has a wide range of applicability.
publisher: American Physical Society
date: 2004
type: Article
type: PeerReviewed
identifier:   Caldarelli, Guido and Coccetti, Fabrizio and De Los Rios, Paolo  Preferential exchange: strengthening connections in complex networks.  Physical Review E, 70 (2).   ISSN 1539-3755      (2004)  
relation: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.70.027102
relation: 10.1103/PhysRevE.70.027102