Evaluating links through spectral decomposition

Abstract: Spectral decomposition has been rarely used to investigate complex networks. In this work we apply this concept in order to define two types of link-directed attacks while quantifying their respective effects on the topology. Several other types of more traditional attacks are also adopted and compared. These attacks had substantially diverse effects, depending on each specific network (models and real-world structures). It is also showed that the spectral-based attacks have special effect in affecting the transitivity of the networks.