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Network structure optimization for social networks by minimizing the average path length

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Abstract

Network structure plays an important role in the natural and social sciences. Optimization of network structure in achieving specified goals has been a major research focus. In this paper, we focus on structural optimization in terms of minimizing the network’s average path length (APL) by adding edges. We suggest a memetic algorithm to find the minimum-APL solution by adding edges. Experiments show that the proposed algorithm can solve this problem efficiently. Further, we find that APL will ultimately decrease linearly in the process of adding edges, which is affected by the network diameter.

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Funding

This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(72104194), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(2021M700107) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(SK2021003).

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  1. These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Policy and Administration, Xi’an Jiaotong University, West Xianning Road, Xi’an, 710049, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Wei Du, Gang Li & Xiaochen He

  2. Center for Administration and Complexity Science, Xi’an Jiaotong University, West Xianning Road, Xi’an, 710049, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Gang Li

  3. School of Economics and Finance, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Yanta West Road, Xi’an, 710061, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaochen He

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  1. Wei Du
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  2. Gang Li
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Correspondence to Xiaochen He.

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Du, W., Li, G. & He, X. Network structure optimization for social networks by minimizing the average path length. Computing 104, 1461–1480 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00607-022-01061-w

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