Networks in the Twenty-First Century

Synonyms

Link: Edge; Network: Graph; Node: Vertex

Glossary

Degree :

The degree k _i of a network node i is its number of neighbors

Power :

A power is an exponent to which a given quantity is raised, for example, x to the ath power, x ^a

Power Law :

When the probability of an event is proportional to a power of some attribute of that event (e.g., its size), the probability distribution is said to be described by a power law

Partition :

Division of a set into non-overlapping subsets

Introduction

The study of networks has a deep history in mathematics, sociology, biology, and computer science reaching back to the 1700. But the twenty-first century is when the study of networks grew into a science in its own right, network science. This development coincided with a boom of interest in networks arising from – of all places – statistical physics.

The story of network science in the twenty-first century is in many ways a story of physicists becoming interested in networks. Network science...