On the hot spots of quantum graphs

Abstract: We undertake a systematic investigation of the maxima and minima of the eigenfunctions associated with the first nontrivial eigenvalue of the Laplacian on a metric graph equipped with standard (continuity--Kirchhoff) vertex conditions. This is inspired by the famous hot spots conjecture for the Laplacian on a Euclidean domain, and the points on the graph where maxima and minima are achieved represent the generically "hottest" and "coldest" spots of the graph. We prove results on both the number and location of the hot spots of a metric graph, and also present a large number of examples, many of which run contrary to what one might na\"ively expect. Amongst other results we prove the following: (i) generically, up to arbitrarily small perturbations of the graph, the points where minimum and maximum, respectively, are attained are unique; (ii) the minima and maxima can only be located at the vertices of degree one or inside the doubly connected part of the metric graph; and (iii) for any fixed graph topology, for some choices of edge lengths all minima and maxima will occur only at degree-one vertices, while for others they will only occur in the doubly connected part of the graph.