Non-equilibrium random walks on multiplex networks

Abstract

We introduce a non-equilibrium discrete-time random walk model on multiplex networks, in which at each time step the walker first undergoes a random jump between neighboring nodes in the same layer, and then tries to hop from one node to one of its replicas in another layer. We derive the so-called supra-Markov matrix that governs the evolution of the occupation probability of the walker. The occupation probability at stationarity is different from the weighted average over the counterparts on each layer, unless the transition probabilities between layers vanish. However, they are approximately equal when the transition probabilities between layers are very small, which is given by the first-order degenerate perturbation theory. Moreover, we compute the mean first passage time (MFPT) and the graph MFPT (GrMFPT) that is the average of the MFPT over all pairs of distinct nodes. Interestingly, we find that the GrMFPT can be smaller than that of any layer taken in isolation. The result embodies the advantage of global search on multiplex networks.