The Graph \(\boldsymbol{\infty }\)-Laplacian Eigenvalue Problem

Abstract. We analyze various formulations of the $\infty$-Laplacian eigenvalue problem on graphs, comparing their properties and highlighting their respective advantages and limitations. First, we investigate the graph $\infty$-eigenpairs arising as limits of p-Laplacian eigenpairs, extending key results from the continuous setting to the discrete domain. We prove that every limit of p-Laplacian eigen-pair, for p going to $\infty$, satisfies a limit eigenvalue equation and establish that the corresponding eigenvalue can be bounded from below by the packing radius of the graph, indexed by the number of nodal domains induced by the eigenfunction. Additionally, we show that the limits, for p going to $\infty$, of the variational p-Laplacian eigenvalues are bounded both from above and from below by the packing radii, achieving equality for the smallest two variational eigenvalues and corresponding packing radii of the graph. In the second part of the paper, we introduce generalized $\infty$-Laplacian eigenpairs as generalized critical points and values of the $\infty$-Rayleigh quotient. We prove that the generalized variational $\infty$-eigenvalues satisfy the same upper bounds in terms of packing radii as the limit of the variational eigenvalues, again with equality holding between the smallest two $\infty$-variational eigenvalues and the first and second packing radii of the graph. Moreover, we establish that any solution to the limit eigenvalue equation is also a generalized eigenpair, while any generalized eigenpair satisfies the limit eigenvalue equation on a suitable subgraph.