Eigenvalue asymptotics for the damped wave equation on metric graphs (Q2358718)

The authors consider a damped wave equation on a metric graph and study its spectral properties. Namely, in a standard way, the equation is a reduced to an eigenvalue problem for a quadratic operator pencil and its eigenvalues are the main object of the study in the paper. The differential expression of this operator pencil on each edge reads as \[ \partial_{xx} u_j(x) -(\lambda^2+2\lambda a_j(x)-b_j(x))u_j(x) = 0. \] At the vertices, the general coupling conditions is imposed in the form \[ (U-I) \Psi + i (U+I)\Psi' = 0\,,\tag{1} \] where \(U\) is a square unitary matrix, \(I\) is the identity matrix, and \(\Psi\) is the vector of the values and the outgoing derivatives of the solution at the vertices. The main discussed object in the paper are high frequency abscissas, which is a number \(\omega_0\) such that there exists a sequence of the eigenvalues \(\{\lambda_{sn}\}_{n=1}^\infty\) such that \[ \lim\limits_{n\to\infty} \mathrm{IM}\,\lambda_{sn}=\pm\infty,\qquad \lim\limits_{n\to\infty} \mathrm{Re}\,\lambda_{sn}=\omega_0. \] The number of distinct high-frequency abscissas of \(H\) is called its abscissa count \(\alpha_c\). For an equilateral graph with standard coupling and containing a cycle of finitely many unit edges with same averages of damping coefficients on all of the edges in the cycle, a high-frequency abscissa is the opposite to the mentioned average. The following two definitions are given the work: Let \(I\) be an open interval in \(\mathbb{R}\) and \(R >0\). Then we define the probability distribution \(\mu_R(I)\) by \[ \mu_R(I) = \frac{\#\{\lambda: \mathrm{Re\,}\lambda \in I, |\mathrm{Im\,}\lambda|< R\}}{\#\{\lambda: |\mathrm{Im\,}\lambda|< R\}}\,. \] We define \(\mu_\infty (I)\) by \( \lim_{R\to \infty} \mu_R(I)\). A graph is bipartite if it admits partition into two classes such that every edge ends in different classes. The main result is the following theorem. Theorem. Let \(\Gamma\) be an equilateral graph with \(N\) edges of length one, with coupling given by (1) and with damping and potential functions \(a_j(x)\in C^1[0,1]\), \(b_j(x)\in C^0[0,1]\), possibly discontinuous at the vertices. \begin{itemize} \item[(i)] The measure \(\mu_\infty\) is atomic with atoms with measures given by \(\frac{m_i}{2N}\) with \(m_i\) being a positive integer. The number of atoms is at most \(2N\) and \( \sum_{i=1}^{\alpha_c} m_{i} = 2N \). \item[(ii)] If the graph is bipartite with Robin coupling on the boundary and standard coupling otherwise, then all \(m_{i}\)'s are even. \item[(iii)] For a tree graph with Robin coupling on the boundary and standard coupling otherwise, having all vertices of odd degree, there always exists a damping for which the maximum possible number of~\(N\) atoms allowed by i) and ii) is achieved. \end{itemize}