
How do social networks evolve when both friendly and unfriendly relations exist? Here we propose a simple dynamics for social networks in which the sense of a relationship can change so as to eliminate imbalanced triads--relationship triangles that contains 1 or 3 unfriendly links. In this dynamics, a friendly link changes to unfriendly or vice versa in an imbalanced triad to make the triad balanced. Such networks undergo a dynamic phase transition from a steady state to "utopia"--all friendly links--as the amount of network friendliness is changed. Basic features of the long-time dynamics and the phase transition are discussed.
16 pages, 11 figures, paper based on an invited talk at Dyonet06, Dynamics on Complex Networks and Applications, Dresden, Germany, Feburary 2006
Physics - Physics and Society, Physics - General Physics, General Physics (physics.gen-ph), networks, social balance, FOS: Physical sciences, Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph), Social networks; opinion dynamics
Physics - Physics and Society, Physics - General Physics, General Physics (physics.gen-ph), networks, social balance, FOS: Physical sciences, Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph), Social networks; opinion dynamics
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 212 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 1% | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Top 1% | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Top 10% |
