Spectral Theory for Discrete Lapacians

Dorin Ervin Dutkay, Palle E. T. Jorgensen

Published 2008-02-16, updated 2008-06-02Version 5

We give the spectral representation for a class of selfadjoint discrete graph Laplacians $\Delta$, with $\Delta$ depending on a chosen graph $G$ and a conductance function $c$ defined on the edges of $G$. We show that the spectral representations for $\Delta$ fall in two model classes, (1) tree-graphs with $N$-adic branching laws, and (2) lattice graphs. We show that the spectral theory of the first class may be computed with the use of rank-one perturbations of the real part of the unilateral shift, while the second is analogously built up with the use of the bilateral shift. We further analyze the effect on spectra of the conductance function $c$: How the spectral representation of $\Delta$ depends on $c$. Using $\Delta_G$, we introduce a resistance metric, and we show that it embeds isometrically into an energy Hilbert space. We introduce an associated random walk and we calculate return probabilities, and a path counting number.