We consider a class of Hamiltonians in L2(R2) with attractive interaction supported by piecewise C2 smooth loops of a fixed length L, formally given by (x) with >0. It is shown that the ground state of this operator is locally maximized by a circular . We also conjecture that this property holds globally and show that the problem is related to an interesting family of geometric inequalities concerning mean values of chords of .

We consider the Laplacian in curved tubes of arbitrary crosssection rotating together with the Frenet frame along curves in Euclidean spaces of arbitrary dimension, subject to Dirichlet boundary conditions on the cylindrical surface and Neumann conditions at the ends of the tube. We prove that the spectral threshold of the Laplacian is estimated from below by the lowest eigenvalue of the Dirichlet Laplacian in a torus determined by the geometry of the tube.

We study a free quantum motion on periodically structured manifolds composed of elementary two-dimensional'cells' connected either by linear segments or through points where the two cells touch. The general theory is illustrated with numerous examples in which the elementary components are spherical surfaces arranged into chains in a straight or zigzag way, or two-dimensional square lattice'carpets'. We show that the spectra of such systems have an infinite number of gaps and that the latter dominate the spectrum at high energies.

We study bound states of the two-dimensional Helmholtz equations with Dirichlet boundary conditions in an open geometry given by two straight leads of the same width which cross at an angle . Such a four-terminal junction with a tunable can realized experimentally if a right-angle structure is filled by a ferrite. It is known that for = 90 there is one proper bound state and one eigenvalue embedded in the continuum. We show that the number of eigenvalues becomes larger with increasing asymmetry and the bound-state energies are increasing as functions of in the interval (0, 90). Moreover, states which are sufficiently strongly bound exist in pairs with a small energy difference and opposite parities. Finally, we discuss how the bound states transform with increasing into quasibound states with a complex wave vector.

We prove an approximation result showing how operators of the type (x ) in L^ 2 ({\bb R}^ 2), where is a graph, can be modelled in the strong resolvent sense by point-interaction Hamiltonians with an appropriate arrangement of the potentials. The result is illustrated on finding the spectral properties in cases when is a ring or a star. Furthermore, we use this method to indicate that scattering on an infinite curve which is locally close to a loop shape or has multiple bends may exhibit resonances due to quantum tunnelling or repeated reflections.