Diagonal entries of the average mixing matrix

Abstract

We study the diagonal entries of the average mixing matrix of continuous quantum walks. The average mixing matrix is a graph invariant; it is the sum of the Schur squares of spectral idempotents of the Hamiltonian. It is non-negative, doubly stochastic and positive semi-definite. We investigate the diagonal entries of this matrix. We study the graphs for which the trace of the average mixing matrix is maximum or minimum and we classify those which are maximum. We give two constructions of graphs whose average mixing matrices have constant diagonal.