Morse theory for discrete magnetic operators and nodal count distribution for graphs (Q6203838)

Summary: Given a discrete Schrödinger operator \(h\) on a finite connected graph \(G\) of \(n\) vertices, the nodal count \(\phi (h,k)\) denotes the number of edges on which the \(k\)-th eigenvector changes sign. A signing \(h^{\prime}\) of \(h\) is any real symmetric matrix constructed by changing the sign of some off-diagonal entries of \(h\), and its nodal count is defined according to the signing. The set of signings of \(h\) lie in a naturally defined torus \(\mathbb{T}_h\) of ``magnetic perturbations'' of \(h\). \textit{G. Berkolaiko} [Anal. PDE 6, No. 5, 1213--1233 (2013; Zbl 1281.35089)] discovered that every signing \(h^{\prime}\) of \(h\) is a critical point of every eigenvalue \(\lambda_k :\mathbb{T}_h \to \mathbb{R}\), with Morse index equal to the nodal surplus. We add further Morse theoretic information to this result. We show if \(h_{\alpha}\in\mathbb{T}_h\) is a critical point of \(\lambda_k\) and the eigenvector vanishes at a single vertex \(v\) of degree \(d\), then the critical point lies in a non-degenerate critical submanifold of dimension \(d+n-4\), closely related to the configuration space of a planar linkage. We compute its Morse index in terms of spectral data. The average nodal surplus distribution is the distribution of values of \(\phi (h^{\prime},k)-(k-1)\), averaged over all signings \(h^{\prime}\) of \(h\). If all critical points correspond to simple eigenvalues with nowhere-vanishing eigenvectors, then the average nodal surplus distribution is binomial. In general, we conjecture that the nodal surplus distribution converges to a Gaussian in a CLT fashion as the first Betti number of \(G\) goes to infinity.