Clustering coefficient

The global clustering coefficient is based on triplets of nodes. A triplet is three nodes that are connected by either two (open triplet) or three (closed triplet) undirected ties. A triangle graph therefore includes three closed triplets, one centered on each of the nodes (n.b. this means the three triplets in a triangle come from overlapping selections of nodes). The global clustering coefficient is the number of closed triplets (or 3 x triangles) over the total number of triplets (both open and closed). The first attempt to measure it was made by Luce and Perry (1949).[3] This measure gives an indication of the clustering in the whole network (global), and can be applied to both undirected and directed networks (often called transitivity, see Wasserman and Faust, 1994, page 243[4]).

The global clustering coefficient is defined as:

${\displaystyle C={\frac {\mbox{number of closed triplets}}{\mbox{number of all triplets (open and closed)}}}}$.

The number of closed triplets has also been referred to as 3 × triangles in the literature, so:

${\displaystyle C={\frac {3\times {\mbox{number of triangles}}}{\mbox{number of all triplets}}}}$.

A generalisation to weighted networks was proposed by Opsahl and Panzarasa (2009),[5] and a redefinition to two-mode networks (both binary and weighted) by Opsahl (2009).[6]

Example local clustering coefficient on an undirected graph. The local clustering coefficient of the blue node is computed as the proportion of connections among its neighbours which are actually realised compared with the number of all possible connections. In the figure, the blue node has three neighbours, which can have a maximum of 3 connections among them. In the top part of the figure all three possible connections are realised (thick black segments), giving a local clustering coefficient of 1. In the middle part of the figure only one connection is realised (thick black line) and 2 connections are missing (dotted red lines), giving a local cluster coefficient of 1/3. Finally, none of the possible connections among the neighbours of the blue node are realised, producing a local clustering coefficient value of 0.

The local clustering coefficient of a vertex (node) in a graph quantifies how close its neighbours are to being a clique (complete graph). Duncan J. Watts and Steven Strogatz introduced the measure in 1998 to determine whether a graph is a small-world network.

A graph ${\displaystyle G=(V,E)}$ formally consists of a set of vertices ${\displaystyle V}$ and a set of edges ${\displaystyle E}$ between them. An edge ${\displaystyle e_{ij}}$ connects vertex ${\displaystyle v_{i}}$ with vertex ${\displaystyle v_{j}}$.

The neighbourhood ${\displaystyle N_{i}}$ for a vertex ${\displaystyle v_{i}}$ is defined as its immediately connected neighbours as follows:

${\displaystyle N_{i}=\{v_{j}:e_{ij}\in E\lor e_{ji}\in E\}.}$

We define ${\displaystyle k_{i}}$ as the number of vertices, ${\displaystyle |N_{i}|}$, in the neighbourhood, ${\displaystyle N_{i}}$, of a vertex.

The local clustering coefficient ${\displaystyle C_{i}}$ for a vertex ${\displaystyle v_{i}}$ is then given by the proportion of links between the vertices within its neighbourhood divided by the number of links that could possibly exist between them. For a directed graph, ${\displaystyle e_{ij}}$ is distinct from ${\displaystyle e_{ji}}$, and therefore for each neighbourhood ${\displaystyle N_{i}}$ there are ${\displaystyle k_{i}(k_{i}-1)}$ links that could exist among the vertices within the neighbourhood (${\displaystyle k_{i}}$ is the number of neighbours of a vertex). Thus, the local clustering coefficient for directed graphs is given as [2]

${\displaystyle C_{i}={\frac {|\{e_{jk}:v_{j},v_{k}\in N_{i},e_{jk}\in E\}|}{k_{i}(k_{i}-1)}}.}$

An undirected graph has the property that ${\displaystyle e_{ij}}$ and ${\displaystyle e_{ji}}$ are considered identical. Therefore, if a vertex ${\displaystyle v_{i}}$ has ${\displaystyle k_{i}}$ neighbours, ${\displaystyle {\frac {k_{i}(k_{i}-1)}{2}}}$ edges could exist among the vertices within the neighbourhood. Thus, the local clustering coefficient for undirected graphs can be defined as

${\displaystyle C_{i}={\frac {2|\{e_{jk}:v_{j},v_{k}\in N_{i},e_{jk}\in E\}|}{k_{i}(k_{i}-1)}}.}$

Let ${\displaystyle \lambda _{G}(v)}$ be the number of triangles on ${\displaystyle v\in V(G)}$ for undirected graph ${\displaystyle G}$. That is, ${\displaystyle \lambda _{G}(v)}$ is the number of subgraphs of ${\displaystyle G}$ with 3 edges and 3 vertices, one of which is ${\displaystyle v}$. Let ${\displaystyle \tau _{G}(v)}$ be the number of triples on ${\displaystyle v\in G}$. That is, ${\displaystyle \tau _{G}(v)}$ is the number of subgraphs (not necessarily induced) with 2 edges and 3 vertices, one of which is ${\displaystyle v}$ and such that ${\displaystyle v}$ is incident to both edges. Then we can also define the clustering coefficient as

${\displaystyle C_{i}={\frac {\lambda _{G}(v)}{\tau _{G}(v)}}.}$

It is simple to show that the two preceding definitions are the same, since

${\displaystyle \tau _{G}(v)=C({k_{i}},2)={\frac {1}{2}}k_{i}(k_{i}-1).}$

These measures are 1 if every neighbour connected to ${\displaystyle v_{i}}$ is also connected to every other vertex within the neighbourhood, and 0 if no vertex that is connected to ${\displaystyle v_{i}}$ connects to any other vertex that is connected to ${\displaystyle v_{i}}$.

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