Diffusion and elastic equations on networks (Q2475481)

The authors consider the discrete versions of the heat (\(\omega\)-diffusion) and the wave (\(\omega\)-elastic) equations defined over a weighted graphs. They prove the minimum and maximum principles for the homogeneous \(\omega\)-diffusion equation. Then they give explicit characterization of the solutions of the inhomogeneous \(\omega\)-diffusion equation in the following cases \begin{itemize}\item(1) problem without boundary conditions, \item(2) the Cauchy initial condition problem, \item(3) the Dirichlet boundary condition problem. The representation formulas are obtained by linear algebra arguments applied to the \(\omega\)-Laplace operator. They also prove the Huygens property and uniqueness of the solutions via energy methods. In a similar way the authors prove analogous results for the \(\omega\)-elastic equations on weighted graphs.\end{itemize}