Antifragility of stochastic transport on networks with damage

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that in modular networks, damage localization can enhance stochastic transport efficiency, revealing antifragile behavior where damage improves system performance.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of antifragility in stochastic transport on networks with community structures, showing how damage can lead to performance improvements.

Findings

Damage localization enhances transport capacity in modular networks.

High modularity networks exhibit antifragile responses to damage.

The study provides a framework for understanding antifragility in complex systems.

Abstract

A system is called antifragile when damage acts as a constructive element improving the performance of a global function. In this paper, we analyze the emergence of antifragility in the movement of random walkers on networks with modular structures or communities. The random walker hops considering the capacity of transport of each link, whereas the links are susceptible to random damage that accumulates over time. We show that in networks with communities and high modularity, the localization of damage in specific groups of nodes leads to a global antifragile response of the system improving the capacity of stochastic transport to more easily reach the nodes of a network. Our findings give evidence of the mechanisms behind antifragile response in complex systems and pave the way for their quantitative exploration in different fields.