Distortion of the Hyperbolicity Constant of a Graph

If X is a geodesic metric space and x1, x2, x3 ∈ X, a geodesic triangle T = {x1, x2, x3} is the union of the three geodesics [x1x2], [x2x3] and [x3x1] in X. The space X is δ-hyperbolic (in the Gromov sense) if any side of T is contained in a δneighborhood of the union of the other two sides, for every geodesic triangle T in X. We denote by δ(X) the sharp hyperbolicity constant of X, i.e., δ(X) := inf{δ ≥ 0 : X is δ-hyperbolic }. The study of hyperbolic graphs is an interesting topic since the hyperbolicity of a geodesic metric space is equivalent to the hyperbolicity of a graph related to it. One of the main aims of this paper is to obtain quantitative information about the distortion of the hyperbolicity constant of the graph G \ e obtained from the graph G by deleting an arbitrary edge e from it. These inequalities allow to obtain the other main result of this paper, which characterizes in a quantitative way the hyperbolicity of any graph in terms of local hyperbolicity.