Neumann Domains on Graphs and Manifolds

Abstract

The nodal set of a Laplacian eigenfunction forms a partition of the underlying manifold or graph. Another natural partition is based on the gradient vector field of the eigenfunction (on a manifold) or on the extremal points of the eigenfunction (on a graph). The submanifolds (or subgraphs) of this partition are called Neumann domains. This paper reviews the subject, as appears in a few recent works and points out some open questions and conjectures. The paper concerns both manifolds and metric graphs and the exposition allows for a comparison between the results obtained for each of them.