Eigenvalue inequalities and absence of threshold resonances for waveguide junctions

Let $Lambdasubset mathbb{R}^d$ be a domain consisting of several cylinders attached to a bounded center. One says that $Lambda$ admits a threshold resonance if there exists a non-trivial bounded function $u$ solving $-Delta u= u u$ in $Lambda$ and vanishing at the boundary, where $ u$ is the bottom of the essential spectrum of the Dirichlet Laplacian in $Lambda$. We derive a sufficient condition for the absence of threshold resonances in terms of the Laplacian eigenvalues on the center. The proof is elementary and is based on the min-max principle. Some two- and three-dimensional examples and applications to the study of Laplacians on thin networks are discussed.