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In this article we study the notion of capacity of a vertex for infinite graphs over non-Archimedean fields. In contrast to graphs over the real field monotone limits do not need to exist. Thus, in our situation next to positive and null capacity there is a third case of divergent capacity. However, we show that either of these cases is independent of the choice of the vertex and is therefore a global property for connected graphs. The capacity is shown to connect the minimization of the energy, solutions of the Dirichlet problem and existence of a Green's function. We furthermore give sufficient criteria in form of a Nash-Williams test, study the relation to Hardy inequalities and discuss the existence of positive superharmonic functions. Finally, we investigate the analytic features of the transition operator in relation to the inverse of the Laplace operator., Comment: 29 pages, 1 figure

We provide an introductory review of some topics in spectral theory of Laplacians on metric graphs. We focus on three different aspects: the trace formula, the self-adjointness problem and connections between Laplacians on metric graphs and discrete graph Laplacians., Comment: to appear in Internationale Mathematische Nachrichten; 15 pages, 2 figures

There are two main notions of a Laplacian operator associated with graphs: discrete graph Laplacians and continuous Laplacians on metric graphs (widely known as quantum graphs). Both objects have a venerable history as they are related to several diverse branches of mathematics and mathematical physics. The existing literature usually treats these two Laplacian operators separately. In this overview, we will focus on the relationship between them (spectral and parabolic properties). Our main conceptual message is that these two settings should be regarded as complementary (rather than opposite) and exactly their interplay leads to important further insight on both sides., Comment: This is an extended version of the invited lecture of one of us (A.K.) at the 8th European Congress of Mathematics in Portoro\v{z}, June 21-26, 2021. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2105.09931

We show that the deficiency indices of the minimal Gaffney Laplacian on an infinite locally finite metric graph are equal to the number of finite volume graph ends. Moreover, we provide criteria, formulated in terms of finite volume graph ends, for the Gaffney Laplacian to be closed., Comment: This version of the article is accepted for publication in J. Funct. Anal

The Glazman-Povzner-Wienholtz theorem states that the completeness of a manifold, when combined with the semiboundedness of the Schr\"odinger operator $-\Delta + q$ and suitable local regularity assumptions on $q$, guarantees its essential self-adjointness. Our aim is to extend this result to Schr\"odinger operators on graphs. We first obtain the corresponding theorem for Schr\"odinger operators on metric graphs, allowing in particular distributional potentials $q\in H^{-1}_{\rm loc}$. Moreover, we exploit recently discovered connections between Schr\"odinger operators on metric graphs and weighted graphs in order to prove a discrete version of the Glazman-Povzner-Wienholtz theorem., Comment: 24 pages; After submission we learned that the discrete version of the Glazman-Povzner-Wienholtz theorem (Theorem 6.1) was proved earlier by a different approach in arXiv:1301.1304 (see Theorem 2.16 there)

We investigate the relationship between one of the classical notions of boundaries for infinite graphs, \emph{graph ends}, and self-adjoint extensions of the minimal Kirchhoff Laplacian on a metric graph. We introduce the notion of \emph{finite volume} for ends of a metric graph and show that finite volume graph ends is the proper notion of a boundary for Markovian extensions of the Kirchhoff Laplacian. In contrast to manifolds and weighted graphs, this provides a transparent geometric characterization of the uniqueness of Markovian extensions, as well as of the self-adjointness of the Gaffney Laplacian -- the underlying metric graph does not have finite volume ends. If however finitely many finite volume ends occur (as is the case of edge graphs of normal, locally finite tessellations or Cayley graphs of amenable finitely generated groups), we provide a complete description of Markovian extensions upon introducing a suitable notion of traces of functions and normal derivatives on the set of graph ends., Comment: to appear in J. London Math. Soc.; 47 pages, 2 figures

This article is concerned with the isospectral problem \[ -f'' + \frac{1}{4} f = z\omega f + z^2 \upsilon f \] for the periodic conservative Camassa-Holm flow, where $\omega$ is a periodic real distribution in $H^{-1}_{\mathrm{loc}}(\mathbb{R})$ and $\upsilon$ is a periodic non-negative Borel measure on $\mathbb{R}$. We develop basic Floquet theory for this problem, derive trace formulas for the associated spectra and establish continuous dependence of these spectra on the coefficients with respect to a weak$^\ast$ topology., Comment: 16 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1801.04612

We investigate spectral properties of Kirchhoff Laplacians on radially symmetric antitrees. This class of metric graphs enjoys a rich group of symmetries, which enables us to obtain a decomposition of the corresponding Laplacian into the orthogonal sum of Sturm--Liouville operators. In contrast to the case of radially symmetric trees, the deficiency indices of the Laplacian defined on the minimal domain are at most one and they are equal to one exactly when the corresponding metric antitree has finite total volume. In this case, we provide an explicit description of all self-adjoint extensions including the Friedrichs extension. Furthermore, using the spectral theory of Krein strings, we perform a thorough spectral analysis of this model. In particular, we obtain discreteness and trace class criteria, criterion for the Kirchhoff Laplacian to be uniformly positive and provide spectral gap estimates. We show that the absolutely continuous spectrum is in a certain sense a rare event, however, we also present several classes of antitrees such that the absolutely continuous spectrum of the corresponding Laplacian is $[0,\infty)$.

We investigate isoperimetric constants of infinite tessellating metric graphs. We introduce a curvature-like quantity, which plays the role of a metric graph analogue of discrete curvature notions for combinatorial tessellating graphs. We then prove a lower estimate and a criterium for positivity of the isoperimetric constant.

We investigate the instability index of the spectral problem $$ -c^2y'' + b^2y + V(x)y = -\mathrm{i} z y' $$ on the line $\mathbb{R}$, where $V\in L^1_{\rm loc}(\mathbb{R})$ is real valued and $b,c>0$ are constants. This problem arises in the study of stability of solitons for certain nonlinear equations (e.g., the short pulse equation and the generalized Bullough-Dodd equation). We show how to apply the standard approach in the situation under consideration and as a result we provide a formula for the instability index in terms of certain spectral characteristics of the 1-D Schr\"odinger operator $H_V=-c^2\frac{d^2}{dx^2}+b^2 +V(x)$., Comment: 15 pages; to appear in Proc. Amer. Math. Soc

We investigate the bottom of the spectra of infinite quantum graphs, i.e., Laplace operators on metric graphs having infinitely many edges and vertices. We introduce a new definition of the isoperimetric constant for quantum graphs and then prove the Cheeger-type estimate. Our definition of the isoperimetric constant is purely combinatorial and thus it establishes connections with the combinatorial isoperimetric constant, one of the central objects in spectral graph theory and in the theory of simple random walks on graphs. The latter enables us to prove a number of criteria for quantum graphs to be uniformly positive or to have purely discrete spectrum. We demonstrate our findings by considering trees, antitrees and Cayley graphs of finitely generated groups., Comment: 38 pages; 2 figures