Information explosion on complex networks and control

When a piece of information spreads on a complex network, error or distortion can occur. For a high error probability, the phenomenon of information explosion can occur where the number of distinct pieces of information on the network increases continuously with time. We construct a physical model to address this phenomenon. The transition to information explosion as the error probability increases through a critical value is uncovered and elucidated, and a control strategy is articulated to maximize the robustness of the network against information explosion, which is validated by both numerical computations and a mean-field based analysis.