Question

I am studying social networks in terms of graph theory and linear algebra. I know that physicists have published and worked a lot in this field. This causes me to assume that there are sub-fields in physics which overlap in the essence of their problems with those of small world networks. Which natural phenomena exhibit these kind of features similar to small world networks?

I would like to know that, so maybe I can look at those problems to get inspiration that can be taken to social network theory.

Answer 1

The concept of network is very general and can be applied to many physical, biological, neuronal, technological and social phenomenon. Any system with distinguishable individual parts interacting with each other can be described by a type of network. With its applicability to many real world problem, a whole individual research field called network science has appeared recently. Therefore, it is not surprising that social network theory is related to theory of some physics system. Though most people's understanding of network is in the context of the Internet and social network, the quantitative description of network is originated from Mathematics and Physics, which are eventually exported to other research area.

The research field in physics involving extensive use of network is statistical mechanics. One of the reason is that networks can be described by the tools of statistical mechanics and some networks can be formulated as a problem in statistical mechanics. Another reason is that the network structure can change dramatically the physical properties of the system, thereby, affect the observable, the critical phenomena and the phase transition. The relation between network and physics will be discussed after the introduction of the network type and research. Examples will also be given below including few non-trivial example with quantum system and laser.