Date of Award
Spring 1-1-2013
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Applied Mathematics
First Advisor
Juan G. Restrepo
Second Advisor
Francois G. Meyer
Third Advisor
James D. Meiss
Fourth Advisor
Aaron Clauset
Fifth Advisor
Manuel Lladser
Abstract
From biological processes to critical infrastructures and social phenomena, many complex systems may be studied as large networks of interacting components. Research investigating the important role of network topology is therefore of broad interest, where techniques may be developed, for example, to control complex dynamical processes with strategic network modications. Applications range from mitigating damage incurred to critical infrastructure (e.g., the energy, banking, and transit systems) to controlling spreading processes, including both those that are harmful (e.g., epidemics) and benecial (e.g., information dissemination). Among the many successful techniques for studying complex networks, spectral graph theory has been shown to be remarkably useful for analyzing and controlling the dynamical and robustness properties of a given network. In this thesis, I discuss my contributions to this eld, which explore the following applications: (i) The analysis of a given network's robustness to the strategic removal of nodes and/or links; (ii) The development of techniques to judiciously modify a network to tune its robustness and dynamical properties; and (iii) The introduction and analysis of a network formation process yielding networks that self-organize with enhanced spreading and robustness characteristics.
Recommended Citation
Taylor, Dane R., "Spectral Theory for the Robustness and Dynamical Properties of Complex Networks" (2013). Applied Mathematics Graduate Theses & Dissertations. 34.
https://scholar.colorado.edu/appm_gradetds/34