Abstract
Recent studies show that in interdependent networks a very small failure in
one network may lead to catastrophic consequences. Above a critical fraction of
interdependent nodes, even a single node failure can invoke cascading failures
that may abruptly fragment the system, while below this "critical dependency"
(CD) a failure of few nodes leads only to small damage to the system. So far,
the research has been focused on interdependent random networks without space
limitations. However, many real systems, such as power grids and the Internet,
are not random but are spatially embedded. Here we analytically and numerically
analyze the stability of systems consisting of interdependent spatially
embedded networks modeled as lattice networks. Surprisingly, we find that in
lattice systems, in contrast to non-embedded systems, there is no CD and
any small fraction of interdependent nodes leads to an abrupt
collapse. We show that this extreme vulnerability of very weakly coupled
lattices is a consequence of the critical exponent describing the percolation
transition of a single lattice. Our results are important for understanding the
vulnerabilities and for designing robust interdependent spatial embedded
networks.
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