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Center for Nonlinear Studies |
This seminar is a brief excursion across some problems I have been investigating over the last few years. Networks are the simplest representations of complex systems and their investigation may shed light on the structure and function of many systems. Here I will discuss the problem of graph clustering, i.e. of finding subgraphs with a high density of internal edges, whereas the density of edges between subgraphs is comparatively low. I will focus on the issues of resolution of global optimization methods and of testing methods against each other. Next, I will enter the realm of sociophysics, i.e. of how statistical physics can help to uncover the collective dynamics of large-scale social systems. The main weakness of this field is the absence of a quantitative phenomenology, as little attention is paid to the relationship between models and real systems and models are usually studied for their own sake. Here I have mainly tried to search for empirical regularities in social data, like scaling and universality, that could somehow inspire and validate a statistical physics modelling of social dynamics. I will introduce recent results on election and citation behavior.
Host: Luis Bettencourt