Coreness
The k-core in a graph is defined to be the remaining sub-graph after all the nodes with degrees ≤ k-1 have been removed successively,
during which:
- when a node is removed, all its adjacent edges will also be
removed; after a node of degree ≤ k-1 is removed, in the remaining graph all
the remaining nodes with a new degree ≤ k-1 also need to be removedIf a node belongs to a k-core of a graph, but it will be removed from the (k+1)-core, then this node is said to have coreness (core value) k.
The largest coreness in a graph is called the coreness of the graph
Examples:
An isolated node has coreness k=0
A fully-connected network of size N has coreness k = N -1
star-shaped networks
the 1-core of the network is the network itself
all nodes, including the central node, have coreness 1
the coreness of the network is 1
Ring networks
the 1-core of the network is the network itself
the 2-core of the network is the network itself
all nodes have coreness 2
the coreness of the network is 2
Why we define Coreness ?
The main implication of the concept of coreness is that a
network with a higher coreness will have better robustness
against intentional attacks. Apparently, both star-shaped and
ring-shaped networks are fragile to intentional attacks.