English

The hydrogen identity for Laplacians

Spectral Theory 2018-03-06 v1 Discrete Mathematics

Abstract

For any finite simple graph G, the hydrogen identity H=L-L^(-1) holds, where H=(d+d^*)^2 is the sign-less Hodge Laplacian defined by sign-less incidence matrix d and where L is the connection Laplacian. Any spectral information about L directly leads to estimates for the Hodge Laplacian H=(d+d^*)^2 and allows to estimate the spectrum of the Kirchhoff Laplacian H_0=d^* d. The hydrogen identity implies that the random walk u(n) = L^n u with integer n solves the one-dimensional Jacobi equation Delta u=H^2 with (Delta u)(n)=u(n+2)-2 u(n)+u(n-2). Every solution is represented by such a reversible path integral. Over a finite field, we get a reversible cellular automaton. By taking products of complexes such processes can be defined over any lattice Z^r. Since L^2 and L^(-2) are isospectral, by a theorem of Kirby, the matrix L^2 is always similar to a symplectic matrix if the graph has an even number of simplices. The hydrogen relation is robust: any Schr\"odinger operator K close to H with the same support can still can be written as K=LL1K=L-L^{-1} where both L(x,y) and L^-1(x,y) are zero if x and y do not intersect.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1803.01464,
  title  = {The hydrogen identity for Laplacians},
  author = {Oliver Knill},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1803.01464},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

29 pages, 8 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-23T00:41:49.287Z