Uniform random spanning trees

In this paper a general class of tree algorithms is analyzed. It is shown that, by using an appropriate probabilistic representation of the quantities of interest, the asymptotic behavior of these algorithms can be obtained quite easily without resorting to the usual complex analysis techniques. This approach gives a unified probabilistic treatment of these questions. It simplifies and extends some of the results known in this domain.

We present a new algorithm for generating a uniformly random spanning tree in an undirected graph. Our algorithm samples such a tree in expected $\tilde{O}(m^{4/3})$ time. This improves over the best previously known bound of $\min(\tilde{O}(m\sqrt{n}),O(n^{\omega}))$ -- that follows from the work of Kelner and M\k{a}dry [FOCS'09] and of Colbourn et al. [J. Algorithms'96] -- whenever the input graph is sufficiently sparse. At a high level, our result stems from carefully ex...

Starting from any graph on $\{1, \ldots, n\}$, consider the Markov chain where at each time-step a uniformly chosen vertex is disconnected from all of its neighbors and reconnected to another uniformly chosen vertex. This Markov chain has a stationary distribution whose support is the set of non-empty forests on $\{1, \ldots, n\}$. The random forest corresponding to this stationary distribution has interesting connections with the uniform rooted labeled tree and the uniform a...

In this paper we introduce a new model of random spanning trees that we call choice spanning trees, constructed from so-called choice random walks. These are random walks for which each step is chosen from a subset of random options, according to some pre-defined rule. The choice spanning trees are constructed by running a choice modified version of Wilson's algorithm or the Aldous-Broder algorithm on the complete graph. We show that the scaling limits of these choice spannin...

Given a subgraph $H$ of a graph $G$, the induced graph of $H$ is the largest subgraph of $G$ whose vertex set is the same as that of $H$. Our paper concerns the induced graphs of the components of $\operatorname{WSF}(G)$, the wired spanning forest on $G$, and, to a lesser extent, $\operatorname{FSF}(G)$, the free uniform spanning forest. We show that the induced graph of each component of $\operatorname{WSF}(\mathbb Z^d$) is almost surely recurrent when $d\ge 8$. Moreover, th...

Graphs are used in many disciplines to model the relationships that exist between objects in a complex discrete system. Researchers may wish to compare a network of interest to a "typical" graph from a family (or ensemble) of graphs which are similar in some way. One way to do this is to take a sample of several random graphs from the family, to gather information about what is "typical". Hence there is a need for algorithms which can generate graphs uniformly (or approximate...

We introduce a Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm which samples from the space of spanning trees of complete graphs using local rewiring operations only. The probability distribution of graphs of this kind is shown to depend on the symmetries of these graphs, which are reflected in the equilibrium distribution of the Markov chain. We prove that the algorithm is ergodic and proceed to estimate the probability distribution for small graph ensembles with exactly known probabilit...

We study the minimum spanning tree distribution on the space of spanning trees of the $n$-by-$n$ grid for large $n$. We establish bounds on the decay rates of the probability of the most and the least probable spanning trees as $n\rightarrow\infty$.

The weight of the minimum spanning tree in a complete weighted graph with random edge weights is a well-known problem. For various classes of distributions, it is proved that the weight of the minimum spanning tree tends to a constant, which can be calculated depending on the distribution. In this paper, we generalise this result to the hypergraphs setting.

We show that the diameter of a uniformly drawn spanning tree of a simple connected graph on $n$ vertices with minimal degree linear in $n$ is typically of order $\sqrt{n}$. A byproduct of our proof, which is of independent interest, is that on such graphs the Cheeger constant and the spectral gap are comparable.