Random walks in time-varying networks with memory (2005.08809v2)

Abstract: Random walks process on networks plays a fundamental role in understanding the importance of nodes and the similarity of them, which has been widely applied in PageRank, information retrieval, and community detection, etc. Individual's memory has been proved to be important to affect network evolution and dynamical processes unfolding on the network. In this manuscript, we study the random-walk process on extended activity driven network model by taking account of individual's memory. We analyze how individual's memory affects random-walk process unfolding on the network when the timescales of the processes of the random walk and the network evolution are comparable. Under the constraints of long-time evolution, we derive analytical solutions for the distribution of stationary state Wa and the mean first-passage time (MFPT) of the random-walk process. We find that, compared with the memoryless activity-driven model, individual's memory enhances the fluctuation of degree distribution, which reduces the capability of gathering walkers for nodes, especially with large activity and delays the mean first-passage time. The results on real networks also support the theoretical analysis with artificial networks.