Spreading of localized attacks in spatial multiplex networks

Abstract

Many real-world multilayer systems such as critical infrastructure are interdependent and embedded in space with links of a characteristic length. They are also vulnerable to localized attacks or failures, such as terrorist attacks or natural catastrophes, which affect all nodes within a given radius. Here we study the effects of localized attacks on spatial multiplex networks of two layers. We find a metastable region where a localized attack larger than a critical size induces a nucleation transition as a cascade of failures spreads throughout the system, leading to its collapse. We develop a theory to predict the critical attack size and find that it exhibits novel scaling behavior. We further find that localized attacks in these multiplex systems can induce a previously unobserved combination of random and spatial cascades. Our results demonstrate important vulnerabilities in real-world interdependent networks and show new theoretical features of spatial networks.

Manuscript with supplementary information included

References in corpus (7)

• The structure and dynamics of multilayer networks
• Percolation of localized attack on complex networks
• Message passing theory for percolation models on multiplex networks with link overlap
• Structural properties of spatially embedded networks
• Cascades in multiplex financial networks with debts of different seniority
• $k$-core percolation on complex networks: Comparing random, localized and targeted attacks
• Robustness of Spatial Micronetworks

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Percolation on complex networks: Theory and application
• Cascading Failures in Complex Networks
• Network Properties for Robust Multilayer Infrastructure Systems: A Percolation Theory Review
• Percolation of Hierarchical Networks and Networks of Networks
• Critical behavior of cascading failures in overloaded networks
• Spreading of localized attacks on spatial multiplex networks with a community structure
• Percolation on spatial anisotropic networks
• Cascading failures in isotropic and anisotropic spatial networks induced by localized attacks and overloads
• The structure of networks that evolve under a combination of growth, via node addition and random attachment, and contraction, via random node deletion
• Interdependent transport via percolation backbones in spatial networks
• Two transitions in spatial modular networks
• Cascading traffic jamming in a two-dimensional Motter and Lai model
• Faster calculation of the percolation correlation length on spatial networks
• Phase transition in evolving networks that combine preferential attachment and random node deletion
• Cascading failures in anisotropic interdependent networks of spatial modular structures