From lines to networks.

Abstract

Many real-world networks, ranging from subway systems to polymer structures and fungal mycelia, do not form by the incremental addition of individual nodes but instead grow through the successive extension and intersection of lines or filaments. Yet most existing models for spatial network formation focus on node-based growth, leaving a significant gap in our understanding of systems built from spatially extended components. Here we introduce a minimal model for spatial networks, rooted in the iterative growth and intersection of lines, a mechanism inspired by diverse systems including transportation networks, fungal hyphae, and vascular structures. Unlike classical approaches, our model constructs networks by sequentially adding lines across a domain populated with randomly distributed points. Each line grows greedily to maximize local coverage, while subject to angular continuity and the requirement to intersect existing structures. This emphasis on extended, interacting elements governed by local optimization and geometric constraints leads to the spontaneous emergence of a core-and-branches architecture. The resulting networks display a range of nontrivial scaling behaviors: the number of intersections grows subquadratically; Flory exponents and fractal dimensions emerge consistent with empirical observations; and spatial scaling exponents depend on the heterogeneity of the underlying point distribution, aligning with measurements from subway systems. Our model thus captures the key organizational features observed across diverse real-world networks, establishing a universal paradigm that goes beyond node-based approaches and demonstrates how the growth of spatially extended elements can shape the large-scale architecture of complex systems.