An improved physarum centrality measure for weighted networks

Identification of the most central node within a network is one of the primary problems in network analysis. Among various centrality measures for weighted networks, most are based on the assumption that information only spreads through the shortest paths. Then, a mathematical model of an amoeboid organism has been used by <i>Physarum</i> centrality to relax the assumption. However, its computational complexity is relatively high by finding competing paths between all pairs of nodes in networks. In this paper, with the idea of a ground node, an improved <i>Physarum</i> centrality is proposed by maintaining the feature of original measure with the performance is greatly enhanced. Examples and applications are given to show the efficiency and effectiveness of our proposed measure in weighted networks.<br />