Journal of Integer Sequences, Vol. 26 (2023), Article 23.4.3

The Number of Ways to Construct a Connected Graph: A Graph-Based Generalization of the Binomial Coefficients


Anna Khmelnitskaya
Faculty of Applied Mathematics
Saint Petersburg State University
Universitetskii prospekt 35
Petergof, Saint Petersburg 198504
Russia

Gerard van der Laan
School of Business and Economics and Tinbergen Institute
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
De Boelelaan 1105
1081 HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands

Dolf Talman
CentER, Department of Econometrics & Operations Research
Tilburg University
Warandelaan 2
5037 AB Tilburg
The Netherlands

Abstract:

This paper studies the number of ways a given connected simple graph can be constructed by a sequence of expanding connected subgraphs starting with a given vertex. When the graph is a path on n + 1 vertices, these numbers are exactly the binomial coefficients in row n of Pascal's triangle. Hence, for other connected graphs, these numbers, called the connectivity degrees of the vertices, generalize the binomial coefficients. We show that the connectivity degrees have properties that for paths reduce to well-known properties of the binomial coefficients. We also prove that the connectivity degrees of the vertices in a tree, when normalized to sum up to one, are equal to the steady state probabilities of some Markov chain on the vertices of the graph. Furthermore, on a connected graph the connectivity degrees of its vertices can be seen as a measure of centrality. On the class of trees we provide an axiomatic characterization of this connectivity centrality measure.


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(Concerned with sequences A000079 A000142 A007318 A052849 A057711.)


Received November 15 2022; revised version received March 31 2023. Published in Journal of Integer Sequences, April 8 2023.


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