Perron-Frobenius type results and discrete versions of nodal domain theorems (Q1124888)

On the basis of a theorem of Perron and Frobenius, it is proved for a real symmetric matrix with non-positive off-diagonal entries that an eigenvector corresponding to the \(s\)th smallest eigenvalue of a graph Laplacian has at most \(s\) nodal domains. These discrete versions of nodal theorems are compared with results of Courant and \textit{A. Pleijel} [Commun. Pure Appl. Math. 9, 543-550 (1956; Zbl 0070.32604)] and with those of \textit{M. Fiedler} [Czech. Math. J. 25(100), 619-633 (1975; Zbl 0437.15004)] showing that the difference between assumptions of these two conceptions accounts for the difference in conlusions, Pleijel and Courant's being a bound on the number of nodal domains of continuous Laplacians and Fiedler's a bound on the number of non-negative regions of graph Laplacians.