A portrait of the collaboration network in quantum information

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the collaboration network in quantum information research, revealing it has small-world, highly aggregated, and hub-dominated properties consistent with established scientific network patterns.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed statistical analysis of the quantum information collaboration network, highlighting its small-world and assortative nature.

Findings

Network exhibits small-world properties

Presence of hubs and highly connected researchers

Alignment with known scientific collaboration patterns

Abstract

From its inception at the beginning of the eighties, with milestone results and ideas such as quantum simulation, the no-cloning theorem, and quantum computers, quantum information has established itself over the next decades, being nowadays a fast-developing field at the interface between fundamental science and a variety of promising technologies. In this work we aim to offer a portrait of this dynamic field, analyzing the statistical properties of the network of collaborations among its researchers. Using the quant-ph section from the arXiv as our database, we draw several conclusions on its properties. In particular, we show that the quantum information network of collaborations displays the small-world property, is very aggregated and assortative, being also in line with Newman's findings as for the presence of hubs and the Lotka's law regarding the average number of publications per author.