  We study the electronic structure of the junctions between a single graphene
layer and carbon nanotubes, using a tight-binding model and the continuum
theory based on Dirac fermion fields. The latter provides a unified description
of different lattice structures with curvature, which is always localized at
six heptagonal carbon rings around each junction. When these are evenly spaced,
we find that it is possible to curve the planar lattice into armchair (6n,6n)
as well as zig-zag (6n,0) nanotubes. We show that the junctions fall into two
different classes, regarding the low-energy electronic behavior. One of them,
constituted by the junctions made of the armchair nanotubes and the zig-zag
(6n,0) geometries when n is a multiple of 3, is characterized by the presence
of two quasi-bound states at the Fermi level, which are absent for the rest of
the zig-zag nanotubes. These states, localized at the junction, are shown to
arise from the effective gauge flux induced by the heptagonal carbon rings,
which has a direct reflection in the local density of states around the
junction. Furthermore, we also analyze the band structure of the arrays of
junctions, finding out that they can also be classified into two different
groups according to the low-energy behavior. In this regard, the arrays made of
armchair and (6n,0) nanotubes with n equal to a multiple of 3 are characterized
by the presence of a series of flat bands, whose number grows with the length
of the nanotubes. We show that such flat bands have their origin in the
formation of states confined to the nanotubes in the array. This is explained
in the continuum theory from the possibility of forming standing waves in the
mentioned nanotube geometries, as a superposition of modes with opposite
momenta and the same quantum numbers under the C_6v symmetry of the junction.
