Graph and Hodge Laplacians: Similarity and Difference [article]

Emily Ribando-Gros, Rui Wang, Jiahui Chen, Yiying Tong, Guo-Wei Wei
2022 arXiv   pre-print
As key subjects in spectral geometry and spectral graph theory respectively, the Hodge Laplacian and the graph Laplacian share similarities in their realization of vector calculus, through the gradient, curl, and divergence, and by revealing the topological dimension and geometric shape of data. These similarities are reflected in the popular usage of "Hodge Laplacians on graphs" in the literature. However, these Laplacians are intrinsically different in their domains of definitions and
more » ... ility to specific data formats, hindering any in-depth comparison of the two approaches. To bring the graph Laplacian and Hodge Laplacian on an equal footing for manifolds with boundary, we introduce Boundary-Induced Graph (BIG) Laplacians using tools from Discrete Exterior Calculus (DEC). BIG Laplacians are defined on discrete domains with appropriate boundary conditions to characterize the topology and shape of data. The similarities and differences of the graph Laplacian, BIG Laplacian, and Hodge Laplacian are examined. Through an Eulerian representation of 3D domains as level-set functions on regular grids, we show experimentally the conditions for the convergence of BIG Laplacian eigenvalues to those of the Hodge Laplacian for elementary shapes.
arXiv:2204.12218v1 fatcat:dlc3azyyjzgeled2wxqjno3wbu