Hyperwalk Formulae for Even and Odd Laplacians in Finite CW-Hypergraphs

Abstract

In this note we provide a combinatorial interpretation for the powers of the hypergraph Laplacians. Our motivation comes from the discrete formulation of quantum mechanics and thermodynamics in the case of finite graphs, which suggest a natural extension to simplicial and CW-complexes. With this motivation, we also define generalizations of the odd Laplacian which is specific to hypergraphs arising from CW-complexes. We then provide a combinatorial interpretation for the powers of these Laplacians.