• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Identities and Inequalities for Tree Entropy
  • Contributor: LYONS, RUSSELL
  • imprint: Cambridge University Press (CUP), 2010
  • Published in: Combinatorics, Probability and Computing
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1017/s0963548309990605
  • ISSN: 0963-5483; 1469-2163
  • Keywords: Applied Mathematics ; Computational Theory and Mathematics ; Statistics and Probability ; Theoretical Computer Science
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <jats:p>The notion of tree entropy was introduced by the author as a normalized limit of the number of spanning trees in finite graphs, but is defined on random infinite rooted graphs. We give some new expressions for tree entropy; one uses Fuglede–Kadison determinants, while another uses effective resistance. We use the latter to prove that tree entropy respects stochastic domination. We also prove that tree entropy is non-negative in the unweighted case, a special case of which establishes Lück's Determinant Conjecture for Cayley-graph Laplacians. We use techniques from the theory of operators affiliated to von Neumann algebras.</jats:p>