Curvature on Combinatorial Graphs
Presenter
June 29, 2023
Abstract
Curvature is one of the fundamental ingredients in differential geometry. It is interesting to think of combinatorial graphs as manifolds and a number of different notions of curvature have been proposed. I will introduce some of the existing ideas and then propose a new notion based on a simple and completely explicit linear system of equations. This notion satisfies a surprisingly large number of desirable properties -- connections to game theory (especially the von Neumann Minimax Theorem) and potential theory will be sketched. I will also sketch some curious related open problems. No prior knowledge of differential geometry (or graphs) is required.