Metrization of Weighted Graphs

Abstract

We find a set of necessary and sufficient conditions under which the weight ${w: E \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^{+}}$ on the graph G = (V, E) can be extended to a pseudometric ${d : V \times V \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^{+}}$. We describe the structure of graphs G for which the set ${\mathfrak{M}_{w}}$ of all such extensions contains a metric whenever w is strictly positive. Ordering ${\mathfrak{M}_{w}}$ by the pointwise order, we have found that the posets $({\mathfrak{M}_{w}, \leqslant)}$ contain the least elements ρ _0,w if and only if G is a complete k-partite graph with ${k \, \geqslant \, 2}$. In this case the symmetric functions ${f : V \times V \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^{+}}$, lying between ρ _0,w and the shortest-path pseudometric, belong to ${\mathfrak{M}_{w}}$ for every metrizable w if and only if the cardinality of all parts in the partition of V is at most two.