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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Kirkland, Stephen, Li, Yuqiao, McAlister, John, Zhang, Xiaohong
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.04005
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author Kirkland, Stephen
Li, Yuqiao
McAlister, John
Zhang, Xiaohong
author_facet Kirkland, Stephen
Li, Yuqiao
McAlister, John
Zhang, Xiaohong
contents Given a connected graph $G$, Kemeny's constant $\mathcal{K}({G})$ measures the average travel time for a random walk to reach a randomly selected vertex. It is known that when an edge is added to $G$, the value of Kemeny's constant may either decrease, increase, or stay the same. In this paper, we present a quantitative analysis of this behaviour when the initial graph is a tree with $n$ vertices. We prove that when an edge is added into a tree on $n$ vertices, the maximum possible increase in Kemeny's constant is roughly $\frac{2}{3}n,$ while the maximum possible decrease is roughly $\frac{3}{16}n^2$. We also identify the trees, and the edges to be added, that correspond to the maximum increase and maximum decrease. Throughout, both matrix theoretic and graph theoretic techniques are employed.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2306_04005
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Edge Addition and the Change in Kemeny's Constant
Kirkland, Stephen
Li, Yuqiao
McAlister, John
Zhang, Xiaohong
Combinatorics
05C50, 60J10
Given a connected graph $G$, Kemeny's constant $\mathcal{K}({G})$ measures the average travel time for a random walk to reach a randomly selected vertex. It is known that when an edge is added to $G$, the value of Kemeny's constant may either decrease, increase, or stay the same. In this paper, we present a quantitative analysis of this behaviour when the initial graph is a tree with $n$ vertices. We prove that when an edge is added into a tree on $n$ vertices, the maximum possible increase in Kemeny's constant is roughly $\frac{2}{3}n,$ while the maximum possible decrease is roughly $\frac{3}{16}n^2$. We also identify the trees, and the edges to be added, that correspond to the maximum increase and maximum decrease. Throughout, both matrix theoretic and graph theoretic techniques are employed.
title Edge Addition and the Change in Kemeny's Constant
topic Combinatorics
05C50, 60J10
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.04005