An entropy-based, scale-dependent centrality

Abstract

In this article we introduce an entropy-based, scale-dependent centrality that is evaluated as the Shannon entropy of the distribution at time t of a continuous-time random walk. It ranks nodes as a function of the time t, which acts as a parameter and defines the scale of the network. It is able capture well-known centralities such as degree, eigenvector and closeness depending on the range of t. We compare it with the broad class of total $f$-communicability centralities, of which both Katz centrality and total communicability are particular cases.