Network Modularity in the Presence of Covariates

Beate Ehrhardt, Patrick J. Wolfe
2019 SIAM Review  
We characterize the large-sample properties of network modularity in the presence of covariates, under a natural and flexible null model. This provides for the first time an objective measure of whether or not a particular value of modularity is meaningful. In particular, our results quantify the strength of the relation between observed community structure and the interactions in a network. Our technical contribution is to provide limit theorems for modularity when a community assignment is
more » ... en by nodal features or covariates. These theorems hold for a broad class of network models over a range of sparsity regimes, as well as for weighted, multiedge, and power-law networks. This allows us to assign p-values to observed community structure, which we validate using several benchmark examples from the literature. We conclude by applying this methodology to investigate a multiedge network of corporate email interactions.
doi:10.1137/17m1111528 fatcat:6d5knd2khjfkrnpstxmv3flioy