Random Walks Across Dimensions: Exploring Simplicial Complexes

Abstract: We introduce a novel operator to describe a random walk process on a simplicial complex. Walkers are allowed to wonder across simplices of various dimensions, bridging nodes to edges, and edges to triangles, via a nested organization that hierarchically extends to higher structures of arbitrary large, but finite, dimension. The asymptotic distribution of the walkers provides a natural ranking to gauge the relative importance of higher order simplices. Optimal search strategies in presence of stochastic teleportation are addressed and the peculiar interplay of noise with higher order structures unraveled.