\(\lambda\) is \(p/2+1\), and reading it from a text layer
gets it wrong. The stacked fraction extracts from the published PDF as
\(\lambda=2p+1\), in Liu et al.'s original as much as in the Almasi
and Hu (2019) reproduction of it. The page image shows \(p\) over
\(2\); so does the paper's own worked example, in printed prose, on
page 210: for the seven-line network of its Fig. 1(b) it writes
\(p=1\), \(U=4\), "\(\lambda=1/2+1=1.5\)" and
\(I_{e_{45}}=4/1.5\approx 2.6667\). The wrong reading returns
\(4/3\) there. cograph reproduces \(8/3\).
\(U\) is never negative, so a score never falls below the
node's degree. For a line \((i,j)\), \(j\) belongs to \(N(i)\)
but to neither \(N(j)\) nor the intersection, so
\(p=|N(i)\cap N(j)|\le k_i-1\) and both factors of \(U\) are at
least zero. Since \(\lambda\ge 1\), every \(I\) and every \(W\) is
at least zero and \(L_{v_i}\ge k_i\). Equality is common rather than
exceptional: every line of a complete graph, of a star, or of any
network whose lines all touch a degree-one node has \(U=0\), so
\(K_n\) scores \(n-1\) at every node and a star scores its degree at
every node.
The importance of a line is conserved when it is split. The two
shares \((k_i-1)/(k_i+k_j-2)\) and \((k_j-1)/(k_i+k_j-2)\) sum to
one, so \(\sum_i (L_{v_i}-k_i)=\sum_{e}I_e\): the network's total
excess over degree is exactly the total importance of its lines. That
identity is asserted over the package's whole verification collection.
An isolated \(K_2\) is the one undefined split, and it is
resolved rather than refused. The denominator \(k_i+k_j-2\) vanishes
only when \(k_i=k_j=1\), since both endpoints of a line have degree at
least one -- that is a two-node component -- and there \(p=0\) and
\(U=(1-0-1)(1-0-1)=0\), so the importance being divided is exactly
zero while the split of it is \(0/0\). Because \(W\) is a
share of \(I\), and the two shares sum to one wherever they are
defined, every admissible split of an exactly zero importance gives an
exactly zero contribution: the answer does not depend on resolving the
indeterminacy. cograph therefore writes the share as zero, taking the
test before the division so that no \(0/0\) is ever evaluated, and
both nodes of a \(K_2\) score \(1\). The source says nothing
about this case; the choice is cograph's, and it follows the precedent
of centrality_lhc, whose \(0/0\) on a triangle-free
graph is likewise written as zero because the denominator vanishes
exactly where every numerator does. It deliberately does not follow
centrality_iec, which returns NA on reducible
input: there the closed form returns a finite number in place of an
infinite one, so a value would be wrong, where here every candidate
value is the same value.
Direction and weights are dropped, because the authors exclude
them. Page 210 opens the derivation with "we assume that a network
\(G=(V,E)\) is an undirected and unweighted network", and every
quantity in the three equations is a count: a degree, a triangle
census, a difference of integers. A directed, weighted or multigraph
input is therefore projected onto its simple undirected skeleton --
arcs symmetrized, weights and parallel edges collapsed to a single line,
loops dropped -- rather than refused, which is the convention every
other undirected-domain measure in centrality already
follows, and the projection is silent rather than warned for the same
reason. There is no in/out/all reading to choose between, so the measure
sits in the no-mode family and cutoff and invert_weights
are ignored as well. The source states no normalization, so
normalized = TRUE max-scales the finished vector as elsewhere in
centrality.
Isolates, singletons and disconnected input need no special
rule. An isolate has degree zero and an empty sum, so it scores zero;
the single node of a one-node graph and every node of an edgeless graph
score zero for the same reason, and an empty graph returns no scores.
Because nothing in equations (1)-(3) reaches past a node's second
neighbors, the raw scores are component-local: attaching a disjoint
component leaves every existing score unchanged.
The source prints three numerical fixtures and all three are
reproduced. Fig. 1 on page 210 prints \(I_{e_{45}}=9\) at \(p=0\)
and \(8/3\) at \(p=1\); Fig. 2 on page 211 prints \(L_{v_2}=26/9\)
and \(L_{v_5}=52/15\) on a 27-node tree; and Table 3 on page 217
prints a DIL value for every one of the 21 nodes of the ARPA network,
whose topology is Fig. 6 on the same page. All 21 printed values are
reproduced, and the edge list read off the figure is corroborated
independently by the paper's own degree column. See the batch 50
published audit in the package's verification directory.