\(n\)-Laplacians on metric graphs and almost periodic functions. I (Q2223547)

Let \(\Gamma(V,E)\) be a finite graph; each edge \(e \in E\) is considered to be a line segment taken from different copies of \(\mathbb R\). With \(\Gamma\) one can associate the Hilbert space \(L_2(\Gamma) = \bigoplus\limits_{e\in E} L_2(e)\). This article is devoted to the investigation of the spectra of differential operators in \(L_2(\Gamma)\) with formal expression \(\left(-i\frac{d}{dx}\right)^{2n}\) (\(n\)-Laplacian). The functions in the domain of such operators are all from the Sobolev space \(H^{2n}(\Gamma)\), which is the set of functions in \(L_2(\Gamma)\) which on each edge \(e\) are contained in the Sobolev space \(W^{2n}_2(e)\). The authors consider the following general vertex conditions \[\sum\limits_{r=0}^{2n-1} A_e\partial_r \Psi = 0, \] where \(\partial_r \Psi\) is the vector of normal \(r\)th derivatives at all endpoints of \(E\) and \(A_0,A_1,..., A_{2n-1}\) are arbitrary \(l \times d\) matrices for a certain \(l \in {\mathbb N}\). The vertex conditions are called scaling-invariant if and only if, for any \(c > 0\), \(\psi(x)\) satisfies the vertex conditions on \(\Gamma\) whenever \(\psi(cx)\) does on \(c\Gamma\). For description of main results, we quote from the paper: ``we have proved that the spectrum of any \(n\)-Laplacian with scaling invariant vertex conditions is asymptotically close to the set of (positive) zeros of a trigonometric polynomial, naturally leading to the notions of the quasispectrum (unique in our case) and asymptotic isospectrality. The trigonometric polynomial was interpreted as a secular function for a Dirac operator on the same metric graphs and with uniquely determined vertex conditions. Our analysis is based on the theory of almost periodic functions, and a few proven abstract results definitely have potential applications far beyond the theory of differential operators on metric graphs. The developed methods appear to be very generalisable, using the rigidity of zeros of almost periodic functions allowing one to treat much more general operators like \(n\)-Laplacians with arbitrary (including non-scaling-invariant) vertex conditions and their perturbations by lower differential expressions.''