Detectability constraints on meso-scale structure in complex networks.

Community, core-periphery, disassortative and other node partitions allow us to understand the organisation and function of large networks. In this work we study common meso-scale structures using the idea of block modularity. We find that the configuration model imposes strong restrictions on core-...

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Main Author: Rudy Arthur
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2025-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317670
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author Rudy Arthur
author_facet Rudy Arthur
author_sort Rudy Arthur
collection DOAJ
description Community, core-periphery, disassortative and other node partitions allow us to understand the organisation and function of large networks. In this work we study common meso-scale structures using the idea of block modularity. We find that the configuration model imposes strong restrictions on core-periphery and related structures in directed and undirected networks. We derive inequalities expressing when such structures can be detected under the configuration model which are closely related to the resolution limit. Nestedness is closely related to core-periphery and is similarly restricted to only be detectable under certain conditions. We then derive a general equivalence between optimising block modularity and maximum likelihood estimation of the parameters of the degree corrected Stochastic Block Model. This allows us to contrast the two approaches, how they formalise the structure detection problem and understand these constraints in inferential versus descriptive approaches to meso-scale structure detection.
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spelling doaj-art-9e06bd7c96b04664903ca6c526f29f712025-02-05T05:31:09ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032025-01-01201e031767010.1371/journal.pone.0317670Detectability constraints on meso-scale structure in complex networks.Rudy ArthurCommunity, core-periphery, disassortative and other node partitions allow us to understand the organisation and function of large networks. In this work we study common meso-scale structures using the idea of block modularity. We find that the configuration model imposes strong restrictions on core-periphery and related structures in directed and undirected networks. We derive inequalities expressing when such structures can be detected under the configuration model which are closely related to the resolution limit. Nestedness is closely related to core-periphery and is similarly restricted to only be detectable under certain conditions. We then derive a general equivalence between optimising block modularity and maximum likelihood estimation of the parameters of the degree corrected Stochastic Block Model. This allows us to contrast the two approaches, how they formalise the structure detection problem and understand these constraints in inferential versus descriptive approaches to meso-scale structure detection.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317670
spellingShingle Rudy Arthur
Detectability constraints on meso-scale structure in complex networks.
PLoS ONE
title Detectability constraints on meso-scale structure in complex networks.
title_full Detectability constraints on meso-scale structure in complex networks.
title_fullStr Detectability constraints on meso-scale structure in complex networks.
title_full_unstemmed Detectability constraints on meso-scale structure in complex networks.
title_short Detectability constraints on meso-scale structure in complex networks.
title_sort detectability constraints on meso scale structure in complex networks
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317670
work_keys_str_mv AT rudyarthur detectabilityconstraintsonmesoscalestructureincomplexnetworks