Gaps in the spectrum of a cuboidal periodic lattice graph

Abstract

We locate gaps in the spectrum of a Hamiltonian on a periodic cuboidal (and generally hyperrectangular) lattice graph with $\delta$ couplings in the vertices. We formulate sufficient conditions under which the number of gaps is finite. As the main result, we find a connection between the arrangement of the gaps and the coefficients in a continued fraction associated with the ratio of edge lengths of the lattice. This knowledge enables a straightforward construction of a periodic quantum graph with any required number of spectral gaps and---to some degree---to control their positions; i.e., to partially solve the inverse spectral problem.