Two New Methods for Network Analysis: Ant Colony Optimization and Reduction by Forgetting

This paper presents two new methods for network analysis. Ant colony optimization is a nature inspired algorithm succesfull in graph traversal and network path finding whereas network reduction based on stability introduces two new properties of network vertices based on their long-term behavior, their role in the network and the understanding of how memory works. We illustrate the algorithms on applications in social network analysis and information retrieval using the DBLP dataset and a small network of hyperlinked documents.