modularity Self-loops, which we assume to be absent in the original graph, contribute negatively to the modularity Q, since aii = 0, aii a − aiai a2 δc (i, i) = − ai a 2 Denition (New null model matrix) We can apply our diagonal diusion operator to the matrix P, obtaining a new null model matrix R with null-diagonal elements and o-diagonal elements rij of the form rij = aiaj a + 1 n − 2 a2 i + a2 j a − 1 n − 1 i a2 i a , i = j The transformation from P to R preserves row (and column) sums.