Speaker: Vito Latora (School of Mathematical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London)

Title:Plain, biased and interacting random walkers on complex networks

Abstract:

Random walks are the simplest way to explore a graph. In this talk we will discuss some of the properties of random walks, such as equilibrium distributions, entropy rates, and mean first-passage times, which might have relevant applications to study traffic fluctuations in the Internet, to design optimal diffusion processes on correlated or uncorrelated networks, or to achieve the best synchronization in a system of Kuramoto oscillators moving on a graph. In particular, we will consider degree-biased random walks with a jumping probability depending on some power of the degree of the target node. Based on whether the exponent is positive or negative, this can give rise to walks that favor or disfavor high-degree vertices. Finally, we will discuss a model of interacting random walkers which compete for the nodes of a complex network, and we will study an real society of interacting individuals, the players of an online-game, with complete information on their movements in a network-shaped universe.

Lunch group: 1