The emergence of order in natural systems is a constant source of inspiration for both physical and biological sciences. While the spatial order characterizing for example the crystals has been the basis of many advances in contemporary physics, most complex systems in nature do not offer such high degree of order. Many of these systems form complex networks whose nodes are the elements of the system and edges represent the interactions between them. 
Traditionally complex networks have been described by the random graph theory founded in 1959 by Paul Erdohs and Alfred Renyi. One of the defining features of random graphs is that they are statistically homogeneous, and their degree distribution (characterizing the spread in the number of edges starting from a node) is a Poisson distribution. In contrast, recent empirical studies, including the work of our group, indicate that the topology of real networks is much richer than that of random graphs. In particular, the degree distribution of real networks is a power-law, indicating a heterogeneous topology in which the majority of the nodes have a small degree, but there is a significant fraction of highly connected nodes that play an important role in the connectivity of the network. 
The scale-free topology of real networks has very important consequences on their functioning. For example, we have discovered that scale-free networks are extremely resilient to the random disruption of their nodes. On the other hand, the selective removal of the nodes with highest degree induces a rapid breakdown of the network to isolated subparts that cannot communicate with each other. 
The non-trivial scaling of the degree distribution of real networks is also an indication of their assembly and evolution. Indeed, our modeling studies have shown us that there are general principles governing the evolution of networks. Most networks start from a small seed and grow by the addition of new nodes which attach to the nodes already in the system. This process obeys preferential attachment: the new nodes are more likely to connect to nodes with already high degree. We have proposed a simple model based on these two principles wich was able to reproduce the power-law degree distribution of real networks. Perhaps even more importantly, this model paved the way to a new paradigm of network modeling, trying to capture the evolution of networks, not just their static topology.

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Statistical mechanics of complex networks

Inspired by empirical studies of networked systems such as the Internet, social networks, and biological networks, researchers have in recent years developed a variety of techniques and models to help us understand or predict the behavior of these systems. Here we review developments in this field, including such concepts as the small-world effect, degree distributions, clustering, network correlations, random graph models, models of network growth and preferential attachment, and dynamical processes taking place on networks.

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The Structure and Function of Complex Networks

We propose a novel approach for solving the perceptual grouping problem in vision. Rather than focusing on local features and their consistencies in the image data, our approach aims at extracting the global impression of an image. We treat image segmentation as a graph partitioning problem and propose a novel global criterion, the normalized cut, for segmenting the graph. The normalized cut criterion measures both the total dissimilarity between the different groups as well as the total similarity within the groups. We show that an efficient computational technique based on a generalized eigenvalue problem can be used to optimize this criterion. We applied this approach to segmenting static images, as well as motion sequences, and found the results to be very encouraging.

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Normalized cuts and image segmentation

We propose a novel approach for solving the perceptual grouping problem in vision. Rather than focusing on local features and their consistencies in the image data, our approach aims at extracting the global impression of an image. We treat image segmentation as a graph partitioning problem and propose a novel global criterion, the normalized cut, for segmenting the graph. The normalized cut criterion measures both the total dissimilarity between the different groups as well as the total similarity within the groups. We show that an efficient computational technique based on a generalized eigenvalue problem can be used to optimize this criterion. We have applied this approach to segmenting static images and found results very encouraging.

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Many networks of interest in the sciences, including social networks, computer networks, and metabolic and regulatory networks, are found to divide naturally into communities or modules. The problem of detecting and characterizing this community structure is one of the outstanding issues in the study of networked systems. One highly effective approach is the optimization of the quality function known as “modularity” over the possible divisions of a network. Here I show that the modularity can be expressed in terms of the eigenvectors of a characteristic matrix for the network, which I call the modularity matrix, and that this expression leads to a spectral algorithm for community detection that returns results of demonstrably higher quality than competing methods in shorter running times. I illustrate the method with applications to several published network data sets.

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Modularity and community structure in networks

Eigenvalues and the Laplacian of a graph Isoperimetric problems Diameters and eigenvalues Paths, flows, and routing Eigenvalues and quasi-randomness Expanders and explicit constructions Eigenvalues of symmetrical graphs Eigenvalues of subgraphs with boundary conditions Harnack inequalities Heat kernels Sobolev inequalities Advanced techniques for random walks on graphs Bibliography Index.

https://orion.math.iastate.edu/butler/papers/14_08_survey.pdf

Spectral Graph Theory

Spectral graph theoretic methods have recently shown great promise for the problem of image segmentation. However, due to the computational demands of these approaches, applications to large problems such as spatiotemporal data and high resolution imagery have been slow to appear. The contribution of this paper is a method that substantially reduces the computational requirements of grouping algorithms based on spectral partitioning making it feasible to apply them to very large grouping problems. Our approach is based on a technique for the numerical solution of eigenfunction problems known as the Nystrom method. This method allows one to extrapolate the complete grouping solution using only a small number of samples. In doing so, we leverage the fact that there are far fewer coherent groups in a scene than pixels.

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Spectral grouping using the Nystrom method

An optical orthogonal code (OOC) is a family of (0,1) sequences with good auto- and cross-correlation properties, i.e the autocorrelation of each sequence exhibits the `thumbtack' shape and the cross correlation between any two sequences remains low throughout. The use of optical orthogonal codes enables a large number of asynchronous users to transmit information efficiently and reliably. The thumbtack-shaped autocorrelation facilitates the detection of the desired signal, and low-profile cross correlation reduces interference from unwanted signals. Theoretical upper and lower bounds on the maximum possible size of OOCs are derived. Methods for the design and analysis of OOCs, using tools from projective geometry, the greedy algorithm, iterative constructions, algebraic coding theory, block design, and various other combinational disciplines, are discussed

Optical orthogonal codes: design, analysis and applications

A local graph partitioning algorithm finds a cut near a specified starting vertex, with a running time that depends largely on the size of the small side of the cut, rather than the size of the input graph. In this paper, we present a local partitioning algorithm using a variation of PageRank with a specified starting distribution. We derive a mixing result for PageRank vectors similar to that for random walks, and show that the ordering of the vertices produced by a PageRank vector reveals a cut with small conductance. In particular, we show that for any set C with conductance \Phi and volume k, a PageRank vector with a certain starting distribution can be used to produce a set with conductance O\left( {\sqrt {\Phi \log k} } \right). We present an improved algorithm for computing approximate PageRank vectors, which allows us to find such a set in time proportional to its size. In particular, we can find a cut with conductance at most \not o , whose small side has volume at least 2b, in time O\left( {2^b \log ^2 m/\not o^2 } \right) where m is the number of edges in the graph. By combining small sets found by this local partitioning algorithm, we obtain a cut with conductance \not o and approximately optimal balance in time O\left( {m\log ^4 m/\not o^2 } \right).

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Fan Chung

Papers

Spectral Graph Theory

Spectral grouping using the Nystrom method

Optical orthogonal codes: design, analysis and applications

Local Graph Partitioning using PageRank Vectors

Optical orthogonal codes: design, analysis, and applications