The combined effect of connectivity and dependency links on percolation of networks

TL;DR

This paper develops a mathematical framework to analyze how the interplay of connectivity and dependency links affects percolation in networks, revealing different transition types and resilience properties for ER and RR networks.

Contribution

It extends percolation theory to networks with both connectivity and dependency links, providing new formulas and insights into their critical behavior and resilience.

Findings

Percolation transition is first order for dependency clusters larger than one.

ER networks are more fragile, with cascades triggered by minimal node removal.

RR networks are more resilient, requiring a finite fraction of nodes to be removed for fragmentation.

Abstract

Percolation theory is extensively studied in statistical physics and mathematics with applications in diverse fields. However, the research is focused on systems with only one type of links, connectivity links. We review a recently developed mathematical framework for analyzing percolation properties of realistic scenarios of networks having links of two types, connectivity and dependency links. This formalism was applied to study Erd$\ddot{o}$s-R$\acute{e}$nyi (ER) networks that include also dependency links. For an ER network with average degree $k$ that is composed of dependency clusters of size $s$, the fraction of nodes that belong to the giant component, $P_\infty$, is given by $ P_\infty=p^{s-1}[1-\exp{(-kpP_\infty)}]^s $ where $1-p$ is the initial fraction of randomly removed nodes. Here, we apply the formalism to the study of random-regular (RR) networks and find a formula for the size of the giant component in the percolation process: $P_\infty=p^{s-1}(1-r^k)^s$ where $r$ is the solution of $r=p^s(r^{k-1}-1)(1-r^k)+1$. These general results coincide, for $s=1$, with the known equations for percolation in ER and RR networks respectively without dependency links. In contrast to $s=1$, where the percolation transition is second order, for $s>1$ it is of first order. Comparing the percolation behavior of ER and RR networks we find a remarkable difference regarding their resilience. We show, analytically and numerically, that in ER networks with low connectivity degree or large dependency clusters, removal of even a finite number (zero fraction) of the network nodes will trigger a cascade of failures that fragments the whole network. This result is in contrast to RR networks where such cascades and full fragmentation can be triggered only by removal of a finite fraction of nodes in the network.