Eigenvalue-based entropy and spectrum of bipartite digraph

Abstract

Graph entropy is an important measure of the evolution and complexity of networks. Bipartite graph is a special network and an important mathematical model for system resource allocation and management. In reality, a network system usually has obvious directionality. The direction of the network, or the movement trend of the network, can be described with spectrum index. However, little research has been done on the eigenvalue-based entropy of directed bipartite network. In this study, based on the adjacency matrix, the in-degree Laplacian matrix and the in-degree signless Laplacian matrix of directed bipartite graph, we defined the eigenvalue-based entropy for the directed bipartite network. Using the eigenvalue-based entropy, we described the evolution law of the directed bipartite network structure. Aiming at the direction and bipartite feature of the directed bipartite network, we improved the generation algorithm of the undirected network. We then constructed the directed bipartite nearest-neighbor coupling network, directed bipartite small-world network, directed bipartite scale-free network, and directed bipartite random network. In the proposed model, spectrum of those directed bipartite network is used to describe the directionality and bipartite property. Moreover, eigenvalue-based entropy is empirically studied on a real-world directed movie recommendation network, in which the law of eigenvalue-base entropy is observed. That is, if eigenvalue-based entropy value of the recommendation system is large, the evolution of movie recommendation network becomes orderless. While if eigenvalue-based entropy value is small, the structural evolution of the movie recommendation network tends to be regular. The simulation experiment shows that eigenvalue-based entropy value in the real directed bipartite network is between the values of a directed bipartite small world and a scale-free network. It shows that the real directed bipartite network has the structural property of the two typical directed bipartite networks. The coexistence of the small-world phenomena and the scale-free phenomena in the real network is consistent with the evolution law of typical network models. The experimental results show that the validity and rationality of the definition of eigenvalue-based entropy, which serves as a tool in the analysis of directed bipartite networks.