Title: Isotropic covariance functions on graphs and their edges,
Abstract: We develop parametric classes of covariance functions on linear networks and
their extension to graphs with Euclidean edges, i.e., graphs with edges viewed
as line segments or more general sets with a coordinate system allowing us to
consider points on the graph which are vertices or points on an edge. Our
covariance functions are defined on the vertices and edge points of these
graphs and are isotropic in the sense that they depend only on the geodesic
distance or on a new metric called the resistance metric (which extends the
classical resistance metric developed in electrical network theory on the
vertices of a graph to the continuum of edge points). We discuss the advantages
of using the resistance metric in comparison with the geodesic metric as well
as the restrictions these metrics impose on the investigated covariance
functions. In particular, many of the commonly used isotropic covariance
functions in the spatial statistics literature (the power exponential,
Mat{é}rn, generalized Cauchy, and Dagum classes) are shown to be valid with
respect to the resistance metric for any graph with Euclidean edges, whilst
they are only valid with respect to the geodesic metric in more special cases.