Mediaspace scheduled maintenance: Aug 25, 2026 07:00 - 12:00 AM. During this time, videos will be temporarily unavailable. Check status updates.

Lecture

Networks: Structure and Properties

In course

PHYS-435: Statistical physics III

This course introduces statistical field theory, and uses concepts related to phase transitions to discuss a variety of complex systems (random walks and polymers, disordered systems, combinatorial optimisation, information theory and error correcting cod ...

Description

This lecture covers the structure and properties of networks, focusing on topics such as dating networks, protein interactions, and neuron networks. It discusses the concept of small-world effect, hubs, and the scale-free property of networks, with examples and derivations.

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Mathematics

Discrete mathematics: Graph theory

Related concepts (32)

Small-world experiment

The small-world experiment comprised several experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram and other researchers examining the average path length for social networks of people in the United States. The research was groundbreaking in that it suggested that human society is a small-world-type network characterized by short path-lengths. The experiments are often associated with the phrase "six degrees of separation", although Milgram did not use this term himself.

Radiometric dating

Radiometric dating, radioactive dating or radioisotope dating is a technique which is used to date materials such as rocks or carbon, in which trace radioactive impurities were selectively incorporated when they were formed. The method compares the abundance of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope within the material to the abundance of its decay products, which form at a known constant rate of decay.

Chronological dating

Chronological dating, or simply dating, is the process of attributing to an object or event a date in the past, allowing such object or event to be located in a previously established chronology. This usually requires what is commonly known as a "dating method". Several dating methods exist, depending on different criteria and techniques, and some very well known examples of disciplines using such techniques are, for example, history, archaeology, geology, paleontology, astronomy and even forensic science, since in the latter it is sometimes necessary to investigate the moment in the past during which the death of a cadaver occurred.

Small-world network

A small-world network is a mathematical graph in which most nodes are not neighbors of one another, but the neighbors of any given node are likely to be neighbors of each other. Due to this, most neighboring nodes can be reached from every other node by a small number of hops or steps. Specifically, a small-world network is defined to be a network where the typical distance L between two randomly chosen nodes (the number of steps required) grows proportionally to the logarithm of the number of nodes N in the network, that is: while the global clustering coefficient is not small.

Absolute dating

Absolute dating is the process of determining an age on a specified chronology in archaeology and geology. Some scientists prefer the terms chronometric or calendar dating, as use of the word "absolute" implies an unwarranted certainty of accuracy. Absolute dating provides a numerical age or range, in contrast with relative dating, which places events in order without any measure of the age between events.

Related lectures (53)

Graphical Models: Representing Probabilistic Distributions

Covers graphical models for probabilistic distributions using graphs, nodes, and edges.

Stein Algorithm: Polynomial Identity Testing

Explores the Stein algorithm for polynomial identity testing and the minimization of a cut problem.

Handling Network Data

Explores handling network data, including types of graphs, real-world network properties, and node importance measurement.

Handling Networks: Graph Theory

Explores graph theory concepts, centrality measures, and real-world network properties, providing insights into handling diverse types of networks.

Minimum Spanning Trees: Prim's Algorithm