title: Centers of complex networks.
abstract: The central vertices in complex networks are of particular interest because they might play the role of organizational hubs. Here, we consider three different geometric centrality measures, excentricity, status, and centroid value, that were originally used in the context of resource placement problems. We show that these quantities lead to useful descriptions of the centers of biological networks which often, but not always, correlate with a purely local notion of centrality such as the vertex degree. We introduce the notion of local centers as local optima of a centrality value "landscape" on a network and discuss briefly their role.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, 225 Nieuwland Science Hall, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wuchty
authors.forename: Peter F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Stadler
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000378:metabolism; D008954:Models, Biological; D015233:Models, Statistical; D025941:Protein Interaction Mapping; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary