# cdlib.algorithms.ricci_community¶

ricci_community(g_original: object, alpha: float = 0.5, method: str = 'Sinkhorn') → cdlib.classes.node_clustering.NodeClustering

Curvature is a geometric property to describe the local shape of an object. If we draw two parallel paths on a surface with positive curvature like a sphere, these two paths move closer to each other while for a negatively curved surface like a saddle, these two paths tend to be apart. Currently there are multiple ways to discretize curvature on graph, in this algorithm, we include two of the most frequently used discrete Ricci curvature: Ollivier-Ricci curvature which is based on optimal transportation theory and Forman-Ricci curvature which is base on CW complexes. Edge Ricci curvature is observed to play an important role in the graph structure. An edge with positive curvature represents an edge within a cluster, while a negatively curved edge tent to be a bridge within clusters. Also, negatively curved edges are highly related to graph connectivity, with negatively curved edges removed from a connected graph, the graph soon become disconnected. Ricci flow is a process to uniformized the edge Ricci curvature of the graph. For a given graph, the Ricci flow gives a “Ricci flow metric” on each edge as edge weights, such that under these edge weights, the Ricci curvature of the graph is mostly equal everywhere. In [Ni3], this “Ricci flow metric” is shown to be able to detect communities. Both Ricci curvature and Ricci flow metric can act as a graph fingerprint for graph classification. The different graph gives different edge Ricci curvature distributions and different Ricci flow metric.

Supported Graph Types

Undirected Directed Weighted
Yes No No
Parameters: g_original – a networkx/igraph object alpha – The parameter for the probability distribution, range from [0 ~ 1]. It means the share of mass to leave on the original node. Default, 0.5. method – Transportation method. [“OTD”, “ATD”, “Sinkhorn”]. Default: Sinkhorn NodeClustering object
>>> from cdlib import algorithms
>>> import networkx as nx
>>> G = nx.karate_club_graph()
>>> coms = algorithms.ricci_community(G)


Ni, C. C., Lin, Y. Y., Luo, F., & Gao, J. (2019). Community detection on networks with ricci flow. Scientific reports, 9(1), 1-12.

Note

Reference implementation: https://github.com/saibalmars/GraphRicciCurvature