Detecting the topologies of complex networks with stochastic perturbations

How to recover the underlying connection topology of a complex network from observed time series of a component variable of each node subject to random perturbations is studied. A new technique termed Piecewise Granger Causality is proposed. The validity of the new approach is illustrated with two FitzHugh-Nagumo neurobiological networks by only observing the membrane potential of each neuron, where the neurons are coupled linearly and nonlinearly, respectively. Comparison with the traditional Granger causality test is performed, and it is found that the new approach outperforms the traditional one. The impact of the network coupling strength and the noise intensity, as well as the data length of each partition of the time series, is further analyzed in detail. Finally, an application to a network composed of coupled chaotic Rössler systems is provided for further validation of the new method.