On the pinning strategy of complex networks

TL;DR

This paper challenges the conventional belief in pinning control of complex networks by showing that pinning small-degree nodes can outperform pinning large-degree nodes when a significant fraction of nodes are pinned, especially in sparse heterogeneous networks.

Contribution

It reveals the conditions under which pinning small-degree nodes yields better control performance, supported by theoretical analysis and network experiments.

Findings

Pinning small-degree nodes can outperform large-degree nodes in certain conditions.

The advantage of small-degree pinning is more pronounced in sparse, heterogeneous networks.

The study provides a new perspective on pinning strategies in complex networks.

Abstract

In pinning control of complex networks, a tacit believing is that the system dynamics will be better controlled by pinning the large-degree nodes than the small-degree ones. Here, by changing the number of pinned nodes, we find that, when a significant fraction of the network nodes are pinned, pinning the small-degree nodes could generally have a higher performance than pinning the large-degree nodes. We demonstrate this interesting phenomenon on a variety of complex networks, and analyze the underlying mechanisms by the model of star networks. By changing the network properties, we also find that, comparing to densely connected homogeneous networks, the advantage of the small-degree pinning strategy is more distinct in sparsely connected heterogenous networks.