Self-adjoint elliptic operators with boundary conditions on not closed hypersurfaces

The abstract theory of self-adjoint extensions of symmetric operators is used to construct self-adjoint realizations of a second-order elliptic operator on $\mathbb{R}^{n}$ with linear boundary conditions on (a relatively open part of) a compact hypersurface. Our approach allows to obtain Krein-like resolvent formulas where the reference operator coincides with the "free" operator with domain $H^{2}(\mathbb{R}^{n})$; this provides an useful tool for the scattering problem from a hypersurface. Concrete examples of this construction are developed in connection with the standard boundary conditions, Dirichlet, Neumann, Robin, $\delta$ and $\delta^{\prime}$-type, assigned either on a $n-1$ dimensional compact boundary $\Gamma=\partial\Omega$ or on a relatively open part $\Sigma\subset\Gamma$. Schatten-von Neumann estimates for the difference of the powers of resolvents of the free and the perturbed operators are also proven; these give existence and completeness of the wave operators of the associated scattering systems.Comment: Final revised version, to appear in Journal of Differential Equation

Zeroth Poisson homology of symmetric powers of isolated quasihomogeneous surface singularities

Let X be a surface with an isolated singularity at the origin, given by the equation Q(x,y,z)=0, where Q is a weighted-homogeneous polynomial. In particular, this includes the Kleinian surfaces X = C^2/G for G < SL(2,C) finite. Let Y be the n-th symmetric power of X. We compute the zeroth Poisson homology of Y, as a graded vector space with respect to the weight grading. In the Kleinian case, this confirms a conjecture of Alev, that the zeroth Poisson homology of the n-th symmetric power of C^2/G is isomorphic to the zeroth Hochschild homology of the n-th symmetric power of the algebra of G-invariant differential operators on C. That is, the Brylinski spectral sequence degenerates in this case. In the elliptic case, this yields the zeroth Hochschild homology of symmetric powers of the elliptic algebras with three generators modulo their center, for the parameter equal to all but countably many points of the elliptic curve.Comment: 17 page

Spectral functions of non essentially selfadjoint operators

One of the many problems to which J.S. Dowker devoted his attention is the effect of a conical singularity in the base manifold on the behavior of the quantum fields. In particular, he studied the small-$t$ asymptotic expansion of the heat-kernel trace on a cone and its effects on physical quantities, as the Casimir energy. In this article we review some peculiar results found in the last decade, regarding the appearance of non-standard powers of $t$, and even negative integer powers of $\log{t}$, in this asymptotic expansion for the selfadjoint extensions of some symmetric operators with singular coefficients. Similarly, we show that the $\zeta$-function associated to these selfadjoint extensions presents an unusual analytic structure.Comment: 57 pages, 1 figure. References added. Version to appear in the special volume of Journal of Physics A in honor of Stuart Dowker's 75th birthday. PACS numbers: 02.30.Tb, 02.30.Sa, 03.65.D