Periodic graph operators with reducible dispersion polynomials for all potentials

Abstract

We give a complete characterization of periodic graph operators whose dispersion polynomials are reducible for every potential. Consequently, the reducibility dichotomy for parameter-dependent Laurent polynomials implies that, for every other periodic graph operator, the dispersion polynomial, and hence the Bloch variety, is irreducible for generic potentials. Our proof proceeds through two reductions. We first use the monodromy of the roots of the dispersion polynomial with respect to the potential parameters to reduce the problem to the splitting case. We then show that the splitting property passes to the principal submatrices of the Floquet matrix, reducing the problem further to the case that the fundamental domain contains two vertices.