Random Walks and the Best Meeting Time for Trees

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Beveridge, Andrew, Pomerance, Ari Holcombe
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Beveridge, Andrew
Pomerance, Ari Holcombe
author_facet Beveridge, Andrew
Pomerance, Ari Holcombe
contents We consider random walks on a tree $G=(V,E)$ with stationary distribution $π_v = \mathrm{deg}(v)/2|E|$ for $v \in V$. Let the hitting time $H(v,w)$ denote the expected number of steps required for the random walk started at vertex $v$ to reach vertex $w$. We characterize the extremal tree structures for the best meeting time $T_{\mathrm{bestmeet}}(G) = \min_{w \in V} \sum_{v \in V} π_v H(v,w)$ for trees of order $n$ with diameter $d$. The best meeting time is maximized by the balanced double broom graph, and it is minimized by the balanced lever graph.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_24387
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Random Walks and the Best Meeting Time for Trees
Beveridge, Andrew
Pomerance, Ari Holcombe
Combinatorics
Probability
05C81 (primary), 05C05 (secondary), 60J10 (secondary)
We consider random walks on a tree $G=(V,E)$ with stationary distribution $π_v = \mathrm{deg}(v)/2|E|$ for $v \in V$. Let the hitting time $H(v,w)$ denote the expected number of steps required for the random walk started at vertex $v$ to reach vertex $w$. We characterize the extremal tree structures for the best meeting time $T_{\mathrm{bestmeet}}(G) = \min_{w \in V} \sum_{v \in V} π_v H(v,w)$ for trees of order $n$ with diameter $d$. The best meeting time is maximized by the balanced double broom graph, and it is minimized by the balanced lever graph.
title Random Walks and the Best Meeting Time for Trees
topic Combinatorics
Probability
05C81 (primary), 05C05 (secondary), 60J10 (secondary)
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.24387