A maximum principle for combinatorial Yamabe flow (Q556232)

In the author's preceding work [Topology 44, No. 4, 791--808 (2005; Zbl 1074.53030)], the curvature of evolution of a combinatorial flow was shown to be similar to a heat equation on graphs which need not satisfy a maximum principle. The author introduces a notion of \textit{parabolic-like operator} which satisfies the maximum principle but may not be parabolic in the usual sense. A maximum principle is then obtained for the curvature of a combinatorial Yamabe flow under certain assumptions showing that the heat operator of the problem is parabolic-like. The maximum principle is used to characterize the curvature and prove a long term existence of the flow.