Can One Hear the Spanning Trees of a Quantum Graph?

DOI10.1007/S11005-023-01656-0MaRDI QIDQ6409618arXivFDO

Authors Jonathan Harrison, T. Weyand

Publication date 2 September 2022

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Trees (05C05) Boundary value problems on graphs and networks for ordinary differential equations (34B45) Selfadjoint operator theory in quantum theory, including spectral analysis (81Q10) Quantum mechanics on special spaces: manifolds, fractals, graphs, lattices (81Q35)

Abstract: Kirchhoff showed that the number of spanning trees of a graph is the spectral determinant of the combinatorial Laplacian divided by the number of vertices; we reframe this result in the quantum graph setting. We prove that the spectral determinant of the Laplace operator on a finite connected metric graph with standard (Neummann-Kirchhoff) vertex conditions determines the number of spanning trees when the lengths of the edges of the metric graph are sufficiently close together. To obtain this result, we analyze an equilateral quantum graph whose spectrum is closely related to spectra of discrete graph operators and then use the continuity of the spectral determinant under perturbations of the edge lengths.

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