The prescribed output pattern regulates the modular structure of flow networks

Modules are common functional and structural properties of many social, technical and biological networks. Especially for biological systems it is important to understand how modularity is related to function and how modularity evolves. It is known that time-varying or spatially organized goals can lead to modularity in a simulated evolution of signaling networks. Here, we study a minimal model of material flow in networks. We discuss the relation between the shared use of nodes, i.e., the cooperativity of modules, and the orthogonality of a prescribed output pattern. We study the persistence of cooperativity through an evolution of robustness against local damages. We expect the results to be valid for a large class of flow-based biological and technical networks. Copyright EDP Sciences, SIF, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013