Transforming a complex network to an acyclic one

Abstract

Acyclic networks are a class of complex networks in which links are directed and do not have closed loops. Here we present an algorithm for transforming an ordinary undirected complex network into an acyclic one. Further analysis of an acyclic network allows one to find the structural properties of the network. With our approach one can find the communities and key nodes in complex networks. Also we propose a new parameter of complex networks which can mark the most vulnerable nodes of the system. The proposed algorithm can be applied to finding communities and bottlenecks in general complex networks.