Gradient estimates for unbounded Laplacians with ellipticity condition on graphs

Abstract

In this article, we prove various gradient estimates for unbounded graph Laplacians which satisfy the ellipticity condition. Unlike common assumptions for unbounded Laplacians, i.e. completeness and non-degenerate measure, the ellipticity condition is purely local that is easy to verify on a graph. First, we establish an equivalent semigroup property, namely the gradient estimate of exponential curvature-dimension inequality, which is a modification of the curvature-dimension inequality and can be viewed as a notion of curvature on graphs. Additionally, we use the semigroup method to prove the Li-Yau inequalities and the Hamilton inequality for unbounded Laplacians on graphs with the ellipticity condition.