Some geometric aspects of graphs and their eigenfunctions

We study three mathematical notions, that of nodal regions for eigenfunctions of the Laplacian, that of covering theory, and that of fiber products, in the context of graph theory and spectral theory for graphs. We formulate analogous notions and theorems for graphs and their eigenpairs. These techniques suggest new ways of studying problems related to spectral theory of graphs. We also perform some numerical experiments suggesting that the fiber product can yield graphs with small second eigenvalue. 1