A significant core structure inside the social network evolutionary process

In social networks, the interaction sustainability and the information sharing needs can produce a subtle and leader phenomenon: a core. Investigations of homeland security in social organizations need to recognize such elite class dominating the network consistency and centralization. However, dense regions gathering strategic individuals are not the best realistic structures to represent it in static models. In this paper, we propose an approach based on the social network dynamics to characterize and identify a core identity. We use “the group” as a conceptual mold to explore three key features: cohesion, dominance, and durability. We represent a real-world network by a meta-model based on patterns of overlapped groups between time steps, linked by weighted arcs. The weights determine which overlaps are relevant. By a critical pattern-based research, we detect the critical path covering the most relevant overlaps: large and central. Once a grouping persists deep in inside, findings show that it presents a large and durable composition playing a central role the most stable. It is qualified as a significant core where the network is shown sensitive throughout the observation period.