Robust network formation with biological applications

Abstract

We provide new results on the structure of optimal transportation networks obtained as minimizers of an energy cost functional consisting of a kinetic (pumping) and material (metabolic) cost terms, constrained by a local mass conservation law. In particular, we prove that every tree (i.e., graph without loops) represents a local minimizer of the energy with concave metabolic cost. For the linear metabolic cost, we prove that the set of minimizers contains a loop-free structure. Moreover, we enrich the energy functional such that it accounts also for robustness of the network, measured in terms of the Fiedler number of the graph with edge weights given by their conductivities. We examine fundamental properties of the modified functional, in particular, its convexity and differentiability. We provide analytical insights into the new model by considering two simple examples. Subsequently, we employ the projected subgradient method to find global minimizers of the modified functional numerically. We then present two numerical examples, illustrating how the optimal graph's structure and energy expenditure depend on the required robustness of the network.