We consider a modification of the Winter model describing a quantum particle in presence of a spherical barrier given by a fixed generalized point interaction. It is shown that the three classes of such interactions correspond to three different types of asymptotic behaviour of resonances of the model at high energies.

The subject of the paper is Schrdinger operators on tree graphs which are radial, having the branching number bn at all the vertices at the distance tn from the root. We consider a family of coupling conditions at the vertices characterized by (bn1)2+4 real parameters. We prove that if the graph is sparse so that there is a subsequence of {tn+1tn} growing to infinity, in the absence of the potential the absolutely continuous spectrum is empty for a large subset of these vertex couplings, but on the the other hand, there are cases when the spectrum of such a Schrdinger operator can be purely absolutely continuous.

We analyze spectrum of Laplacian supported by a periodic honeycomb lattice with generally unequal edge lengths and a <i></i> type coupling in the vertices. Such a quantum graph has nonempty point spectrum with compactly supported eigenfunctions provided all the edge lengths are commensurate. We derive conditions determining the continuous spectral component and show that existence of gaps may depend on number-theoretic properties of edge lengths ratios. The case when two of the three lengths coincide is discussed in detail.

We discuss differences between the exact<i>S</i>-matrix for scattering on serial structures and a known factorized expression constructed of single-element<i>S</i>-matrices. As an illustration, we use an exactly solvable model of a quantum wire with two point impurities.

We study approximations of billiard systems by lattice graphs. It is demonstrated that under natural assumptions the graph wavefunctions approximate solutions of the Schroedinger equation with energy rescaled by the billiard dimension. As an example, we analyze a Sinai billiard with attached leads. The results illustrate emergence of global structures in large quantum graphs and offer interesting comparisons with patterns observed in complex networks of a different nature.