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Department of Mathematics,
University of California San Diego

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Food For Thought Seminar

Jacob Hughes

UCSD

Random Walks on Colorings of Graphs

Abstract:

\indent Given a fixed graph $G$ on $n$ vertices, we can create a random coloring of $G$ in the following way: randomly pick an edge, then randomly pick a color, and then color both endpoints of that edge that color. We can continue this process on a graph that is already colored by simply overwriting any vertices that have already been assigned a color. This gives rise to a random walk on the $2^n$ colorings of $G$, and it is this random walk that we will investigate. The eigenvalues of the transition matrix are known and have a simple form. We discuss these and other quantities as well as several related problems.

March 10, 2011

10:00 AM

AP&M 7321

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