Edge Partitions and Overlapping Communities in Complex Networks

In this paper, we develop the idea to partition the edges of a graph in order to uncover overlapping communities of its nodes. Our approach is based on the construction of different types of weighted line graphs, i.e. graphs whose nodes are the links of the original graph, that encapsulate differently the relations between the edges. Weighted line graphs are argued to provide an alternative, valuable representation of the system’s topology, and are shown to have important applications in community detection, as the usual node partition of a line graph naturally leads to an edge partition of the original graph. This identification allows us to use traditional partitioning methods in order to address the long-standing problem of the detection of overlapping communities. We generalise our approach to weighted graphs and apply it to the analysis of different social and geographical networks. PACS. 89.75.Hc Networks and genealogical trees – 89.75.Fb Structures and organization in complex systems – 05.40.Fb Random walks and Levy flights