Self-adjoint restrictions of maximal operator on graph

Abstract

In the work we study differential operators on arbitrary geometric graphs without loops. We extend the known results for differential operators on an interval to the differential operators on the graphs. In order to define properly the maximal operator on a given graph, we need to choose a set of boundary vertices. The non-boundary vertices are called interior vertices. We stress that the maximal operator on a graph is determined not only by the given differential expressions on the edges, but also by the Kirchhoff conditions at the interior vertices of the graph. For the introduced maximal operator we prove an analogue of the Lagrange formula. We provide an algorithm for constructing adjoint boundary forms for an arbitrary set of boundary conditions. In the conclusion of the paper, we present a complete description of all self-adjoint restrictions of the maximal operator.