title: A universal indicator of critical state transitions in noisy complex networked systems.
abstract: Critical transition, a phenomenon that a system shifts suddenly from one state to another, occurs in many real-world complex networks. We propose an analytical framework for exactly predicting the critical transition in a complex networked system subjected to noise effects. Our prediction is based on the characteristic return time of a simple one-dimensional system derived from the original higher-dimensional system. This characteristic time, which can be easily calculated using network data, allows us to systematically separate the respective roles of dynamics, noise and topology of the underlying networked system. We find that the noise can either prevent or enhance critical transitions, playing a key role in compensating the network structural defect which suffers from either internal failures or environmental changes, or both. Our analysis of realistic or artificial examples reveals that the characteristic return time is an effective indicator for forecasting the sudden deterioration of complex networks.
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematics, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Junhao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: School of Data and Computer Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yanqing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Guanrong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: School of Mathematics, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, P.R. China.|Key Laboratory of Computational Mathematics, Guangdong Province, Guangzhou 510275, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Tianshou
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhou