A "walk" within a graph is usually defined for simple graphs, multigraphs or even pseudographs as "alternating sequence of vertices and edges x0 , e1 , x1 , e2 , ... , e(l) , x(l) where e(i) = x(i-1)x(i), 0Bollobas] p. 4. This definition requires the edges to connect two vertices at most (loops are also allowed: if e(i) is a loop, then x(i-1) = x(i)). For hypergraphs containing hyperedges (i.e. edges connecting more than two vertices), however, a more general definition is needed. Two approaches for a definition applicable for arbitrary hypergraphs are used in the literature: "walks on the vertex level" and "walks on the edge level" (see Aksoy, Joslyn, Marrero, Praggastis, Purvine: "Hypernetwork science via high-order hypergraph walks", June 2020, https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-020-00231-0):
"walks on the edge level": For a positive integer s, an s-walk of length k between hyperedges f and g is a sequence of hyperedges, f=e(0), e(1), ... , e(k)=g, where for j=1, ... , k, e(j-1) =/= e(j) and e(j-1) and e(j) have at least s vertices in common (according to Aksoy et al.).
"walks on the vertex level": For a positive integer s, an s-walk of length k between vertices a and b is a sequence of vertices, a=v(0), v(1), ... , v(k)=b, where for j=1, ... , k, v(j-1) and v(j) are connected by at least s edges (analogous to Aksoy et al.).
There are two imperfections for the definition for "walks on the edge level": one is that a walk of length 1 consists of two edges (or a walk of length 0 consists of one edge), whereas a walk of length 1 on the vertex level consists of two vertices and one edge (or a walk of length 0 consists of one vertex and no edge). The other is that edges, especially loops, can be traversed only once (and not repeatedly) because of the condition e(j-1) =/= e(j). The latter is avoided in the definition for , see df-ewlks. To be compatible with the (usual) definition of walks for pseudographs, walks also suitable for arbitrary hypergraphs are defined "on the vertex level" in the following as , see df-wlks, restricting s to 1. wlk1ewlk shows that such a 1-walk "on the vertex level" induces a 1-walk "on the edge level".