Evolution of Networks

We live in a world of networks, where everything is amazingly close to everything else. The notion of 'network' turns out to be central to our times: the Internet and WWW are changing our lives; our physical existence is based on various biological networks; we are involved in all-enveloping networks of economic and social relations. Only in the 1990s did physicists begin to explore real networks, both natural and artificial, as evolving systems with intriguingly complex and effective architectures. Progress has been so immediate and astounding that we actually face a new science based on a new set of concepts, and, one may even say, on a new philosophy: the natural philosophy of a small world. Old ideas from mathematics, statistical physics, biology, computer science, and so on take on quite new forms in applications to real evolving networks. - What is common to all networks? - What are the general principles of the organization and evolution of networks? - How do the laws of nature work in communication, biological, and social networks? - What are networks? This book, written by physicists, answers these questions and presents a general insight into the world of networks. "This book is the first technical text on the currently fashionable field of complex networks. I strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in this new and interdisciplinary field of research." -- Journal of Statistical Physics"Evolution of Networks offers an excellent foundation from which the fast-paced field can be approached with confidence. It would be an excellent addition to the bookshelf of anyone interested in networks." -- Physics Today0. Modern architecture of random graphs ; 1. What are networks? ; 2. Popularity is attractive ; 3. Real networks ; 4. Equilibrium networks ; 5. Non-equilibrium networks ; 6. Global topology of networks ; 7. Growth of networks and self-organized criticality ; 8. Philosophy of a small world ; A. Relations for an adjacency matrix ; B. How to measure a distribution ; C. Statistics of cliques ; D. Power-law preference ; E. Inhomogenous growing net ; F. Z-transform ; G. Critical phenomena in networks ; H. A guide to the network literature