Math 2.0

Potential theory Definition

Liouville property of graphs

Builds on GraphDiscrete harmonic functionTreeRandom walk

Definition

Let G=(V,E)G = (V, E) be a connected infinite graph in which every vertex has finitely many neighbours, with symmetric positive edge weights cc. The graph GG has the Liouville property if every bounded function f ⁣:V→ℝf \colon V \to \R that is harmonic on all of VV is constant. It has the strong Liouville property if every positive function that is harmonic on all of VV is constant. Without weights, the edge weights are taken equal to 11, which corresponds to the simple random walk.

Remarks

Example: ℤd\Z^d with unit weights has the Liouville property for every d≥1d \ge 1. For d=1d = 1 this is direct, since the harmonic functions on ℤ\Z are f(n)=an+bf(n) = an + b, and such a function is bounded only when a=0a = 0. Non-example: the 33-regular tree T3T_3 fails it. Fix an edge {o,o′}\set{o, o'}, and let h(x)h(x) be the probability that the simple random walk from xx eventually stays in the component of T3T_3 minus this edge that contains o′o'. The walk on T3T_3 is transient, so it crosses the edge finitely often, and hh is harmonic by conditioning on the first step. Its values lie in [0,1][0, 1], and it is not constant. Indeed h(x)h(x) tends to 11 as xx moves away from the edge on the side of o′o', and to 00 on the side of oo. The strong Liouville property implies the Liouville property, since a bounded harmonic ff gives the positive harmonic function f−inf⁡f+1f - \inf f + 1.

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  1. Discrete harmonic function concept
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  4. Tree concept
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Further reading

  1. Web https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_function
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Tag7F5MZS55Y1
URIm2://7F5MZS55Y1
Kinddefinition
WritingW0 stub
MSC31C20, 05C81
DefinesLiouville property of graphs
UsesGraph, Discrete harmonic function, Tree, Random walk

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