Absolutely continuous spectrum for Laplacians on radial metric trees and periodicity

Abstract

On an infinite, radial metric tree graph we consider the corresponding Laplacian equipped with self-adjoint vertex conditions from a large class including $\delta$- and weighted $\delta'$-couplings. Assuming the numbers of different edge lengths, branching numbers and different coupling conditions to be finite, we prove that the presence of absolutely continuous spectrum implies that the sequence of geometric data of the tree as well as the coupling conditions are eventually periodic. On the other hand, we provide examples of self-adjoint, non-periodic couplings which admit absolutely continuous spectrum.