title: Analyzing trails in complex networks.
abstract: Even more interesting than the intricate organization of complex networks is the dynamical behavior of systems underlain by such structures. Among the many types of dynamics, one particularly interesting category involves the evolution of trails left by moving agents progressing through random walks and dilating processes in a complex network. The emergence of trails is present in many dynamical process, such as pedestrian traffic, information flow, and metabolic pathways. Important problems related to trails include the reconstruction of the trail and the identification of its source, when complete knowledge of the trail is missing. In addition, the following of trails in multiagent systems represents a particularly interesting situation related to pedestrian dynamics and swarming intelligence. The present work addresses these three issues while taking into account permanent and transient marks left in the visited nodes. Different topologies are considered for trail reconstruction and trail source identification, including four complex network models and four real networks, namely, the Internet, the U.S. airlines network, an email network, and the scientific collaboration network of complex network researchers. Our results show that the topology of the network influences trail reconstruction, source identification, and agent dynamics.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Física de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, P. O. Box 369, São Carlos, São Paulo 13560-970, Brazil. luciano@if.sc.usp.br
authors.forename: Luciano
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: da Fontoura Costa
authors.forename: Francisco A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Rodrigues
authors.forename: Gonzalo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Travieso