Finite graphs and configurations of points

Abstract

We generalize the Atiyah problem on configurations and the related Atiyah--Sutcliffe conjectures 1 and 2 using finite graphs, configurations of points and tensors. Our conjectures are intriguing geometric inequalities, defined using the pairwise directions of the configuration of points, just as in the original problem. The generalization of the Atiyah determinant to our setting is no longer a determinant. We call it the $G$-amplitude function, where $G$ is a finite simple graph, in analogy with probability amplitudes in quantum physics. If $G = K_n$ is the complete graph with $n$ vertices, we recover the Atiyah--Sutcliffe conjectures 1 and 2.