Extended Lorenz majorization and frequencies of distances in an undirected network
Feb 06, 2024
About this article
Article Category: Research Papers
Published Online: Feb 06, 2024
Page range: 1 - 10
Received: Nov 25, 2023
Accepted: Dec 28, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jdis-2024-0007
Keywords
© 2024 Leo Egghe, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Purpose
To contribute to the study of networks and graphs.
Design/methodology/approach
We apply standard mathematical thinking.
Findings
We show that the distance distribution in an undirected network Lorenz majorizes the one of a chain. As a consequence, the average and median distances in any such network are smaller than or equal to those of a chain.
Research limitations
We restricted our investigations to undirected, unweighted networks.
Practical implications
We are convinced that these results are useful in the study of small worlds and the so-called six degrees of separation property.
Originality/value
To the best of our knowledge our research contains new network results, especially those related to frequencies of distances.