On the average squared radius of gyration of a family of embeddings of subdivision graphs

Abstract

Suppose we have an embedding of a graph $\mathbf{G}$ created by subdividing the edges of a simpler graph $\mathbf{G'}$. The edges of $\mathbf{G}$ can be divided into subsets which join pairs of ``junction'' vertices in $\mathbf{G'}$. The displacement vectors of the edges in each subset sum to the displacement between junctions. We can construct a family of embeddings of $\mathbf{G}$ with the same junction positions by rearranging the displacements in each group. In this paper, we show that the average (squared) radius of gyration of these embeddings is given by a simple formula involving a weighted (squared) radius of gyration of the positions of the junctions and the sum of the squares of the lengths of the edges of $\mathbf{G}$ and $\mathbf{G'}$. This ensemble of graph embeddings arises naturally in polymer science.