The fundamental gap for a class of Schrödinger operators on path and hypercube graphs

Abstract

We consider the difference between the two lowest eigenvalues (the fundamental gap) of a Schrödinger operator acting on a class of graphs. In particular, we derive tight bounds for the gap of Schrödinger operators with convex potentials acting on the path graph. Additionally, for the hypercube graph, we derive a tight bound for the gap of Schrödinger operators with convex potentials dependent only upon vertex Hamming weight. Our proof makes use of tools from the literature of the fundamental gap theorem as proved in the continuum combined with techniques unique to the discrete case. We prove the tight bound for the hypercube graph as a corollary to our path graph results.