On the minimum constant resistance curvature conjecture of graphs

Abstract

Let $G$ be a connected graph with $n$ vertices. The resistance distance $\Omega_{G}(i,j)$ between any two vertices $i$ and $j$ of $G$ is defined as the effective resistance between them in the electrical network constructed from $G$ by replacing each edge with a unit resistor. The resistance matrix of $G$, denoted by $R_G$, is an $n \times n$ matrix whose $(i,j)$-entry is equal to $\Omega_{G}(i,j)$. The resistance curvature $\kappa_i$ in the vertex $i$ is defined as the $i$-th component of the vector $(R_G)^{-1}\mathbf{1}$, where $\mathbf{1}$ denotes the all-one vector. If all the curvatures in the vertices of $G$ are equal, then we say that $G$ has constant resistance curvature. Recently, Devriendt, Ottolini and Steinerberger \cite{kde} conjectured that the cycle $C_n$ is extremal in the sense that its curvature is minimum among graphs with constant resistance curvature. In this paper, we confirm the conjecture. As a byproduct, we also solve an open problem proposed by Xu, Liu, Yang and Das \cite{kxu} in 2016. Our proof mainly relies on the characterization of maximum value of the sum of resistance distances from a given vertex to all the other vertices in 2-connected graphs.