Introduction to Quantum Graphs

A "quantum graph" is a graph considered as a one-dimensional complex and equipped with a differential operator ("Hamiltonian"). Quantum graphs arise naturally as simplified models in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and engineering when one considers propagation of waves of various nature through a quasi-one-dimensional (e.g., "meso-" or "nano-scale") system that looks like a thin neighborhood of a graph. Works that currently would be classified as discussing quantum graphs have been appearing since at least the 1930s, and since then, quantum graphs techniques have been applied successfully in various areas of mathematical physics, mathematics in general and its applications. One can mention, for instance,…