Extremal Values of Ratios: Distance Problems vs. Subtree Problems in Trees

The authors discovered a dual behaviour of two tree indices, the Wiener index and the number of subtrees, for a number of extremal problems [Discrete Appl. Math. 155 (3) 2006, 374-385; Adv. Appl. Math. 34 (2005), 138-155]. Barefoot, Entringer and Székely [Discrete Appl. Math. 80 (1997), 37-56] determined extremal values of σT(w)/σT(u), σT(w)/σT(v), σ(T)/σT(v), and σ(T)/σT(w), where T is a tree on n vertices, v is in the centroid of the tree T, and u,w are leaves in T. In this paper we test how far the negative correlation between distances and subtrees go if we look for the extremal values of FT(w)/FT(u), FT(w)/FT(v), F(T)/FT(v), and F(T)/FT(w), where T is a tree on n vertices, v is in the subtree core of the tree T, and u,w are leaves in T-the complete analogue of [Discrete Appl. Math. 80 (1997), 37-56], changing distances to the number of subtrees. We include a number of open problems, shifting the interest towards the number of subtrees in graphs

Random subtrees of complete graphs

We study the asymptotic behavior of four statistics associated with subtrees of complete graphs: the uniform probability $p_n$ that a random subtree is a spanning tree of $K_n$, the weighted probability $q_n$ (where the probability a subtree is chosen is proportional to the number of edges in the subtree) that a random subtree spans and the two expectations associated with these two probabilities. We find $p_n$ and $q_n$ both approach $e^{-e^{-1}}\approx .692$, while both expectations approach the size of a spanning tree, i.e., a random subtree of $K_n$ has approximately $n-1$ edges

Trickle-down processes and their boundaries

It is possible to represent each of a number of Markov chains as an evolving sequence of connected subsets of a directed acyclic graph that grow in the following way: initially, all vertices of the graph are unoccupied, particles are fed in one-by-one at a distinguished source vertex, successive particles proceed along directed edges according to an appropriate stochastic mechanism, and each particle comes to rest once it encounters an unoccupied vertex. Examples include the binary and digital search tree processes, the random recursive tree process and generalizations of it arising from nested instances of Pitman's two-parameter Chinese restaurant process, tree-growth models associated with Mallows' phi model of random permutations and with Schuetzenberger's non-commutative q-binomial theorem, and a construction due to Luczak and Winkler that grows uniform random binary trees in a Markovian manner. We introduce a framework that encompasses such Markov chains, and we characterize their asymptotic behavior by analyzing in detail their Doob-Martin compactifications, Poisson boundaries and tail sigma-fields.Comment: 62 pages, 8 figures, revised to address referee's comment

Phase ordering after a deep quench: the stochastic Ising and hard core gas models on a tree

Consider a low temperature stochastic Ising model in the phase coexistence regime with Markov semigroup $P_t$. A fundamental and still largely open problem is the understanding of the long time behavior of \d_\h P_t when the initial configuration \h is sampled from a highly disordered state $\nu$ (e.g. a product Bernoulli measure or a high temperature Gibbs measure). Exploiting recent progresses in the analysis of the mixing time of Monte Carlo Markov chains for discrete spin models on a regular $b$-ary tree \Tree^b, we tackle the above problem for the Ising and hard core gas (independent sets) models on \Tree^b. If $\nu$ is a biased product Bernoulli law then, under various assumptions on the bias and on the thermodynamic parameters, we prove $\nu$-almost sure weak convergence of \d_\h P_t to an extremal Gibbs measure (pure phase) and show that the limit is approached at least as fast as a stretched exponential of the time $t$. In the context of randomized algorithms and if one considers the Glauber dynamics on a large, finite tree, our results prove fast local relaxation to equilibrium on time scales much smaller than the true mixing time, provided that the starting point of the chain is not taken as the worst one but it is rather sampled from a suitable distribution.Comment: 35 page

Diameter of the thick part of moduli space and simultaneous Whitehead moves

Let S be a surface of genus g with p punctures with negative Euler characteristic. We study the diameter of the $\epsilon$-thick part of moduli space of S equipped with the Teichm\"uller or Thurston's Lipschitz metric. We show that the asymptotic behaviors in both metrics are of order $\log \frac{g+p}{\epsilon}$. The same result also holds for the $\epsilon$-thick part of the moduli space of metric graphs of rank n equipped with the Lipschitz metric. The proof involves a sorting algorithm that sorts an arbitrary labeled tree with n labels with simultaneous Whitehead moves, where the number of steps is of order log(n).Comment: 34 pages, 10 figures. Referee's comments incorporated. An appendix section is added to discuss the growth rate of the diameter of the space of graphs equipped with the metric of (non-simultaneous) Whitehead moves. The final version will appear in Duke Mathematical Journa