Impediments to diffusion in quantum graphs: Geometry-based upper bounds on the spectral gap.

We derive several upper bounds on the spectral gap of the Laplacian on compact metric graphs with standard or Dirichlet vertex conditions. In particular, we obtain estimates based on the length of a shortest cycle (girth), diameter, total length of the graph, as well as further metric quantities introduced here for the first time, such as the avoidance diameter. Using known results about Ramanujan graphs, a class of expander graphs, we also prove that some of these metric quantities, or combinations thereof, do not to deliver any spectral bounds with the correct scaling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]