arXiv subjects

Andrea Santoro

Publications and source records attributed to Andrea Santoro.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Dynamical processes and emergent behaviors in multiplex networks

Over the last two decades, network science has greatly advanced our understanding of how the collective behaviors of a complex system emerge from the interactions among its basic units. Multiplex networks, i.e. networks with many layers, whose nodes are in one-to-one correspondence, provide a more realistic description for social, biological and ecological systems where multiple types of interactions coexist. After a brief introduction on how to model the architecture of multiplex networks, we present a complete overview of the different dynamics which can unfold over these structures. We present a unified framework to describe dynamical processes such as percolation, reaction-diffusion, synchronization, epidemic spreading, social dynamics and games on multiplex networks, as well as the coupled evolution of different dynamical processes, and the coevolution of a process with the network structure. Our focus is on truly-multiplex collective behaviors, i.e., all those phenomena which cannot emerge on the corresponding aggregated networks, or when the different layers of these systems are considered in isolation. We identify three main mechanisms leading to new collective behaviors: the existence of structural correlations across layers, the presence of dynamical correlations in the processes taking place at the different layers, and the dynamical interplay of inter- and intra-layer interactions. We conclude with a summary of the main takeaways from a decade of work in the field.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2025

From Nodes to Edges: Edge-Based Laplacians for Brain Signal Processing

Traditional graph signal processing (GSP) methods applied to brain networks focus on signals defined on the nodes. Thus, they are unable to capture potentially important dynamics occurring on the edges. In this work, we adopt an edge-centric GSP approach to analyze edge signals constructed from 100 unrelated subjects of the Human Connectome Project. Specifically, we describe structural connectivity through the lens of the 1-dimensional Hodge Laplacian, processing signals defined on edges to capture co-fluctuation information between brain regions. We demonstrate that edge-based approaches achieve superior task decoding accuracy in static and dynamic scenarios compared to conventional node-based techniques, thereby unveiling unique aspects of brain functional organization. These findings underscore the promise of edge-focused GSP strategies for deepening our understanding of brain connectivity and functional dynamics.

eess.SP↗

arXiv2025

The networks of ingredient combinations as culinary fingerprints of world cuisines

Investigating how different ingredients are combined in popular dishes is crucial to uncover the principles behind food preferences. Here, we use data from public food repositories and network analysis to characterize and compare worldwide cuisines. Ingredients are first grouped into broader types, and each cuisine is then represented as a network in which nodes correspond to ingredient types and weighted links describe how frequently pairs of types co-occur in recipes. Cuisines differ not only in the popularity of ingredient types and range of recipe sizes, but also in the structural organization of ingredient-type combinations. By analyzing these networks, we uncover distinctive patterns of type associations that serve as culinary fingerprints. For example, European cuisines typically distribute ingredients across different types, whereas certain Asian and South American traditions emphasize one dominant type, such as vegetables or spices. The essence of these patterns is well captured by the networks' maximum spanning trees, which offer a simplified yet representative backbone for each cuisine. We demonstrate that both these full and simplified network representations enable machine learning models to identify cuisines from subsets of recipes with very high accuracy. Networks of ingredient combinations also cluster global cuisines into meaningful geo-cultural groups, reflecting shared patterns in culinary traditions. More broadly, our study offers novel insights into the structure of world cuisines, enabling data-driven approaches to their characterization, cross-cultural comparison, and potential adaptation.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2022

Unveiling the higher-order organization of multivariate time series

Time series analysis has proven to be a powerful method to characterize several phenomena in biology, neuroscience and economics, and to understand some of their underlying dynamical features. Despite a plethora of methods have been proposed for the analysis of multivariate time series, most of them neglect the effect of non-pairwise interactions on the emerging dynamics. Here, we propose a novel framework to characterize the temporal evolution of higher-order dependencies within multivariate time series. Using network analysis and topology, we show that, unlike traditional tools based on pairwise statistics, our framework robustly differentiates various spatiotemporal regimes of coupled chaotic maps, including chaotic dynamical phases and various types of synchronization. Hence, using the higher-order co-fluctuation patterns in simulated dynamical processes as a guide, we highlight and quantify signatures of higher-order patterns in data from brain functional activity, financial markets, and epidemics. Overall, our approach sheds new light on the higher-order organization of multivariate time series, allowing a better characterization of dynamical group dependencies inherent to real-world data.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2021

Optimising the mitigation of epidemic spreading through targeted adoption of contact tracing apps

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is the first epidemic in human history in which digital contact-tracing has been deployed at a global scale. Tracking and quarantining all the contacts of individuals who test positive to a virus can help slowing-down an epidemic, but the impact of contact-tracing is severely limited by the generally low adoption of contact-tracing apps in the population. We derive here an analytical expression for the effectiveness of contact-tracing app installation strategies in a SIR model on a given contact graph. We propose a decentralised heuristic to improve the effectiveness of contact tracing under fixed adoption rates, which targets a set of individuals to install contact-tracing apps, and can be easily implemented. Simulations on a large number of real-world contact networks confirm that this heuristic represents a feasible alternative to the current state of the art.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2020

Optimal percolation in correlated multilayer networks with overlap

Multilayer networks have been found to be prone to abrupt cascading failures under random and targeted attacks, but most of the targeting algorithms proposed so far have been mainly tested on uncorrelated systems. Here we show that the size of the critical percolation set of a multilayer network is substantially affected by the presence of inter-layer degree correlations and edge overlap. We provide extensive numerical evidence which confirms that the state-of-the-art optimal percolation strategies consistently fail to identify minimal percolation sets in synthetic and real-world correlated multilayer networks, thus overestimating their robustness. We propose two new targeting algorithms, based on the local estimation of path disruptions away from a given node, and a family of Pareto-efficient strategies that take into account both intra-layer and inter-layer heuristics, and can be easily extended to multiplex networks with an arbitrary number of layers. We show that these strategies consistently outperform existing attacking algorithms, on both synthetic and real-world multiplex networks, and provide some interesting insights about the interplay of correlations and overlap in determining the hyperfragility of real-world multilayer networks. Overall, the results presented in the paper suggest that we are still far from having fully identified the salient ingredients determining the robustness of multiplex networks to targeted attacks.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2020

Algorithmic complexity of multiplex networks

Multilayer networks preserve full information about the different interactions among the constituents of a complex system, and have recently proven quite useful in modelling transportation networks, social circles, and the human brain. A fundamental and still open problem is to assess if and when the multilayer representation of a system provides a qualitatively better model than the classical single-layer aggregated network. Here we tackle this problem from an algorithmic information theory perspective. We propose an intuitive way to encode a multilayer network into a bit string, and we define the complexity of a multilayer network as the ratio of the Kolmogorov complexity of the bit strings associated to the multilayer and to the corresponding aggregated graph. We find that there exists a maximum amount of additional information that a multilayer model can encode with respect to the equivalent single-layer graph. We show how our complexity measure can be used to obtain low-dimensional representations of multidimensional systems, to cluster multilayer networks into a small set of meaningful super-families, and to detect tipping points in the evolution of different time-varying multilayer graphs. Interestingly, the low-dimensional multiplex networks obtained with the proposed method also retain most of the dynamical properties of the original systems, as demonstrated for instance by the preservation of the epidemic threshold in the multiplex SIS model. These results suggest that information-theoretic approaches can be effectively employed for a more systematic analysis of static and time-varying multidimensional complex systems.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2019

Simplex2Vec embeddings for community detection in simplicial complexes

Topological representations are rapidly becoming a popular way to capture and encode higher-order interactions in complex systems. They have found applications in disciplines as different as cancer genomics, brain function, and computational social science, in representing both descriptive features of data and inference models. While intense research has focused on the connectivity and homological features of topological representations, surprisingly scarce attention has been given to the investigation of the community structures of simplicial complexes. To this end, we adopt recent advances in symbolic embeddings to compute and visualize the community structures of simplicial complexes. We first investigate the stability properties of embedding obtained for synthetic simplicial complexes to the presence of higher order interactions. We then focus on complexes arising from social and brain functional data and show how higher order interactions can be leveraged to improve clustering detection and assess the effect of higher order interaction on individual nodes. We conclude delineating limitations and directions for extension of this work.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2018

Pareto optimality in multilayer network growth

We model the formation of multi-layer transportation networks as a multi-objective optimization process, where service providers compete for passengers, and the creation of routes is determined by a multi-objective cost function encoding a trade-off between efficiency and competition. The resulting model reproduces well real-world systems as diverse as airplane, train and bus networks, thus suggesting that such systems are indeed compatible with the proposed local optimization mechanisms. In the specific case of airline transportation systems, we show that the networks of routes operated by each company are placed very close to the theoretical Pareto front in the efficiency-competition plane, and that most of the largest carriers of a continent belong to the corresponding Pareto front. Our results shed light on the fundamental role played by multi-objective optimization principles in shaping the structure of large-scale multilayer transportation systems, and provide novel insights to service providers on the strategies for the smart selection of novel routes.

physics.soc-ph↗