Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 198701 (2001) [4 pages]Efficient Behavior of Small-World NetworksReceived 25 January 2001; published 17 October 2001 We introduce the concept of efficiency of a network as a measure of how efficiently it exchanges information. By using this simple measure, small-world networks are seen as systems that are both globally and locally efficient. This gives a clear physical meaning to the concept of “small world,” and also a precise quantitative analysis of both weighted and unweighted networks. We study neural networks and man-made communication and transportation systems and we show that the underlying general principle of their construction is in fact a small-world principle of high efficiency. © 2001 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.198701
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.198701
PACS:
89.70.+c, 05.90.+m, 87.18.Sn, 89.40.+k
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