A reverse Aldous/Broder algorithm
Abstract
The Aldous--Broder algorithm provides a way of sampling a uniformly random spanning tree for finite connected graphs using simple random walk. Namely, start a simple random walk on a connected graph and stop at the cover time. The tree formed by all the first-entrance edges has the law of a uniform spanning tree. Here we show that the tree formed by all the last-exit edges also has the law of a uniform spanning tree. This answers a question of Tom Hayes and Cris Moore from 2010. The proof relies on a bijection that is related to the BEST theorem in graph theory. We also give other applications of our results, including new proofs of the reversibility of loop-erased random walk, of the Aldous--Broder algorithm itself, and of Wilson's algorithm.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1907.10196,
title = {A reverse Aldous/Broder algorithm},
author = {Yiping Hu and Russell Lyons and Pengfei Tang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.10196},
year = {2021}
}
Comments
14 pages, 1 figure