Morse theory for discrete magnetic operators and nodal count distribution for graphs

Graphs and linear algebra (matrices, eigenvalues, etc.) (05C50) Eigenvalues, singular values, and eigenvectors (15A18) Schrödinger operator, Schrödinger equation (35J10) Signed and weighted graphs (05C22) Abstract critical point theory (Morse theory, Lyusternik-Shnirel'man theory, etc.) in infinite-dimensional spaces (58E05) PDEs on graphs and networks (ramified or polygonal spaces) (35R02)

Abstract: Given a discrete Schr"odinger operator

h

on a finite connected graph

G

of

n

vertices, the nodal count

p h i (h, k)

denotes the number of edges on which the

k

-th eigenvector changes sign. A {em signing}

h^{'}

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

m a t h b b T_{h}

of ``magnetic perturbations" of

h

. G. Berkolaiko discovered that every signing

h^{'}

of

h

is a critical point of every eigenvalue

l a m b d a_{k} : m a t h b b T_{h} o m a t h b b R

, with Morse index equal to the nodal surplus. We add further Morse theoretic information to this result. We show if

h_{a l p h a} i n m a t h b b T_{h}

is a critical point of

l a m b d a_{k}

and the eigenvector vanishes at a single vertex

v

of degree

d

, then the critical point lies in a nondegenerate 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

p h i (h^{'}, k) - (k - 1)

, averaged over all signings

h^{'}

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.

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Cites work

Cited in

(1)

Morse inequalities for ordered eigenvalues of generic self-adjoint families

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