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arXiv · 1909.08926

Vulnerability and Resilience of Social Engagement: Equilibrium Theory

Shang-Nan Wang·Luan Cheng·Hai-Jun Zhou
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Abstract

Social networks of engagement sometimes dramatically collapse. A widely adopted paradigm to understand this catastrophe dynamics is the threshold model but previous work only considered the irreversible K-core pruning process and the resulting kinetic activity patterns. Here we study the network alliance problem as a simplified model of social engagement by equilibrium statistical mechanics. Our theory reveals that the surviving kinetic alliances are out-of-equilibrium and atypical configurations which may become highly vulnerable to single-node-triggered cascading failures as they relax towards equilibrium. Our theory predicts that if the fraction of active nodes is beyond a certain critical value, the equilibrium (typical) alliance configurations could be protected from cascading failures by a simple least-effort local intervention strategy. We confirm these results by extensive Monte Carlo simulations.

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Shang-Nan Wang, Luan Cheng, Hai-Jun Zhou. 2019-09-19. Vulnerability and Resilience of Social Engagement: Equilibrium Theory. https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075%2F132%2F60006

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