Evaluating links through spectral decomposition

TL;DR

This paper explores the use of spectral decomposition to analyze complex networks, introducing spectral-based link attacks and comparing their effects with traditional methods, revealing unique impacts on network topology and transitivity.

Contribution

It is the first to apply spectral decomposition for link attacks in complex networks and compares their effects with traditional attack strategies.

Findings

Spectral-based attacks significantly affect network transitivity.

Effects of attacks vary depending on network type.

Spectral attacks have unique impacts compared to traditional methods.

Abstract

Spectral decomposition has been rarely used to investigate complex networks. In this work we apply this concept in order to define two types of link-directed attacks while quantifying their respective effects on the topology. Several other types of more traditional attacks are also adopted and compared. These attacks had substantially diverse effects, depending on each specific network (models and real-world structures). It is also showed that the spectral-based attacks have special effect in affecting the transitivity of the networks.