Nodal count of graph eigenfunctions via magnetic perturbation

We establish a connection between the stability of an eigenvalue under a magnetic perturbation and the number of zeros of the corresponding eigenfunction. Namely, we consider an eigenfunction of discrete Laplacian on a graph and count the number of edges where the eigenfunction changes sign (has a "zero"). It is known that the $n$-th eigenfunction has $n-1+s$ such zeros, where the "nodal surplus" $s$ is an integer between 0 and the number of cycles on the graph. We then perturb the Laplacian by a weak magnetic field and view the $n$-th eigenvalue as a function of the perturbation. It is shown that this function has a critical point at the zero field and that the Morse index of the critical point is equal to the nodal surplus $s$ of the $n$-th eigenfunction of the unperturbed graph.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figure

Eigenvalues, absolute continuity and localizations for periodic unitary transition operators

The localization phenomenon for periodic unitary transition operators on a Hilbert space consisting of square summable functions on an integer lattice with values in a complex vector space, which is a generalization of the discrete-time quantum walks with constant coin matrices, are discussed. It is proved that a periodic unitary transition operator has an eigenvalue if and only if the corresponding unitary matrix-valued function on a torus has an eigenvalue which does not depend on the points on the torus. It is also proved that the continuous spectrum of the periodic unitary transition operators is absolutely continuous. As a result, it is shown that the localization happens if and only if there exists an eigenvalue, and the long time average of the transition probabilities coincides with the point-wise norm of the projection of the initial state to the direct sum of eigenspaces.Comment: 15 pages. The first half of the previous version has been simplified. Some of previous results has been mentioned. As an example, Grover walk on a topological crystal is explaine