Definition "connected component"

[danpwhalen]

I'm very new to Gephi and I have a dumb question.

What is the technical definition of "connected component"? I just ran the "Connected Component" on my facebook gml and got "6"? I guess now i'm wondering "six whats?"

I can see the connected components visually, but is there a fixed, technical definition - ie "X number of verticies connected" or "cluster with diameter of X"? (I'm using ForceAtlas2, if thats relevant).

Moreover, where do I look to get a detailed, specific, technical definitions of terms, functions, queries, etc. in Gephi?

Thanks!

(PS - I just started the "Social Network Analysis" class on Coursera. I'm just starting out looking at network analysis, and its already been very interesting. I'm excited to get into this!)

[seinecle]

Hi,

Good question! Wikipedia has actually a good collection of definitions in network theory, including one for connected components:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connected_ ... ph_theory)

Best,

Clement