Information-thermodynamic principles unveil the response of complex networks to perturbations
Abstract
Understanding how complex networks respond to perturbations is key to uncovering their functional organization. We show that, for a maximum-entropy perturbation prior, standard diffusion cannot increase response entropy, a measure of the diversity of the system's response. To overcome this limitation, we develop a density-matrix-based information thermodynamics of perturbation responses along arbitrary dynamical trajectories. We show that this framework is grounded in an information-theoretic principle of least dissipation and introduces a generalized free energy that quantifies deviations from an instantaneous diffusive reference. We then illustrate the formalism using nonlinear complex networks, revealing regimes of enhanced response diversity that cannot be captured by standard diffusive descriptions.
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BibTeX
@misc{beretta2026informationthermodynamic,
title = {{Information-thermodynamic principles unveil the response of complex networks to perturbations}},
author = {Andrea Filippo Beretta and Manlio De Domenico},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.35667},
eprint = {2610.35667},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.35667},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Information-thermodynamic principles unveil the response of complex networks to perturbations
AU - Andrea Filippo Beretta
AU - Manlio De Domenico
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/26
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.35667
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.35667
AB - Understanding how complex networks respond to perturbations is key to uncovering their functional organization. We show that, for a maximum-entropy perturbation prior, standard diffusion cannot increase response entropy, a measure of the diversity of the system's response. To overcome this limitation, we develop a density-matrix-based information thermodynamics of perturbation responses along arbitrary dynamical trajectories. We show that this framework is grounded in an information-theoretic principle of least dissipation and introduces a generalized free energy that quantifies deviations from an instantaneous diffusive reference. We then illustrate the formalism using nonlinear complex networks, revealing regimes of enhanced response diversity that cannot be captured by standard diffusive descriptions.
ER -