Lamplighter groups, de Bruijn graphs, spider-web graphs and their spectra

Abstract

We describe the infinite family of spider-web graphs $S_{k,M,N }$, $k \geq 2$, $M \geq 1$ and $N \geq 0$, studied in physical literature as tensor products of well-known de Brujin graphs $B_{k,N}$ and cyclic graphs $C_M$ and show that these graphs are Schreier graphs of the lamplighter groups $L_k = Z/kZ \wr Z$. This allows us to compute their spectra and to identify the infinite limit of $S_{k,M,N}$, as $N, M \to\infty$, with the Cayley graph of the lamplighter group $L_k$. This is the final version of the article, taking in account comments from the referees and with an extended introduction.