A Role for Chordless Cycles in the Representation and Retrieval of Information

This paper explains how very large network structures can be reduced, or consolidated, to an assemblage of chordless cycles (cyclic structures without cross connecting links), that is called a trace, for storage and later retreival. After developing a basic mathematical framework, it illustrates the reduction process using a most general (with directed and undirected links) network. A major theme of the paper is that this approach appears to model actual biological memory, as well as offering an attractive digital solution.