Fixed Node Determination and Analysis in Directed Acyclic Graphs of Structured Networks

Abstract: This paper explores the conditions for determining fixed nodes in structured networks, specifically focusing on directed acyclic graphs (DAGs). We introduce several necessary and sufficient conditions for determining fixed nodes in $p$-layered DAGs. This is accomplished by defining the problem of maximum disjoint stems, based on the observation that all DAGs can be represented as hierarchical structures with a unique label for each layer. For structured networks, we discuss the importance of fixed nodes by considering their controllability against the variations of network parameters. Moreover, we present an efficient algorithm that simultaneously performs labeling and fixed node search for $p$-layered DAGs with an analysis of its time complexity. The results presented in this paper have implications for the analysis of controllability at the individual node level in structured networks.