Resistance distances on networks

Abstract

This paper aims to study a family of distances in networks associated with effective resistances. Specifically, we consider the effective resistance distance with respect to a positive parameter and a weight on the vertex set; that is, the effective resistance distance associated with an irreducible and symmetric M-matrix whose lowest eigenvalue is the parameter and the weight function is the associated eigenfunction. The main idea is to consider the network embedded in a host network with additional edges whose conductances are given in terms of the mentioned parameter. The novelty of these distances is that they take into account not only the influence of shortest and longest weighted paths but also the importance of the vertices. Finally, we prove that the adjusted forest metric introduced by P. Chebotarev and E. Shamis is nothing else but a distance associated with a Schr?dinger operator with constant weight.