Computing and interpreting the adjacency spectrum of traffic networks (Q1073716)

Networks of transportation routes between cities can be considered as graphs in a canonical way. In the geographical literature several suggestions can be found for the interpretation of eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the adjacency matrix of such graphs which are expected to yield a measure for the well-connectedness of the network or for the identification of well-positioned vertices in the network [cf. \textit{A. Cliff}, \textit{P. Haggett} and \textit{K. Ord}, in: Applications of graph theory, 293-326 (1979; Zbl 0447.05042)]. In the present paper these ideas are reviewed critically. Positive results on the interpretation of graph spectra by the same author can be found in a forthcoming paper: Transportation in graphs and the admittance spectrum (to appear in Discrete Appl. Math.).