Title
The electrical resistance of a graph captures its commute and cover times
Abstract
View an n-vertex, m-edge undirected graph as an electrical network with unit resistors as edges. We extend known relations between random walks and electrical networks by showing that resistance in this network is intimately connected with the lengths of random walks on the graph. For example, the commute time between two vertices s and t (the expected length of a random walk from s to t and back) is precisely characterized by the effective resistance Rst between s and t: commute time = 2mRst. Additionally, the cover time (the expected length of a random walk visiting all vertices) is characterized by the maximum resistance R in the graph to within a factor of log n: mR ≤ cover time ≤ O (mR log n). For many graphs, the bounds on cover time obtained in this manner are better than those obtained from previous techniques such as the eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix. In particular, using this approach, we improve known bounds on cover times for various classes of graphs, including high-degree graphs, expanders, and multi-dimensional meshes. Moreover, resistance seems to provide an intuitively appealing and tractable approach to these problems.
Year
DOI
Venue
1997
10.1145/73007.73062
Computational Complexity
Keywords
Field
DocType
electrical resistance,random walk,maximum resistance r,effective resistance rst,expected length,m-edge undirected graph,cover time,log n,electrical network,commute time,high-degree graph,Random walk,resistance,60J15,68Q99
Adjacency matrix,Discrete mathematics,Binary logarithm,Random regular graph,Combinatorics,Random graph,Vertex (geometry),Random walk,Resistance distance,Eigenvalues and eigenvectors,Mathematics
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
6
4
1016-3328
ISBN
Citations 
PageRank 
0-89791-307-8
164
40.32
References 
Authors
17
5
Search Limit
100164
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Ashok K. Chandra116440.32
Prabhakar Raghavan2133512776.61
Walter L. Ruzzo32727550.25
R. Smolensky461584.56
Prasoon Tiwari559296.81