Commutation Relations for Unitary Operators

Let $U$ be a unitary operator defined on some infinite-dimensional complex Hilbert space ${\cal H}$. Under some suitable regularity assumptions, it is known that a local positive commutation relation between $U$ and an auxiliary self-adjoint operator $A$ defined on ${\cal H}$ allows to prove that the spectrum of $U$ has no singular continuous spectrum and a finite point spectrum, at least locally. We show that these conclusions still hold under weak regularity hypotheses and without any gap condition. As an application, we study the spectral properties of the Floquet operator associated to some perturbations of the quantum harmonic oscillator under resonant AC-Stark potential

Commutation Relations for Unitary Operators III

Let $U$ be a unitary operator defined on some infinite-dimensional complex Hilbert space ${\cal H}$. Under some suitable regularity assumptions, it is known that a local positive commutation relation between $U$ and an auxiliary self-adjoint operator $A$ defined on ${\cal H}$ allows to prove that the spectrum of $U$ has no singular continuous spectrum and a finite point spectrum, at least locally. We prove that under stronger regularity hypotheses, the local regularity properties of the spectral measure of $U$ are improved, leading to a better control of the decay of the correlation functions. As shown in the applications, these results may be applied to the study of periodic time-dependent quantum systems, classical dynamical systems and spectral problems related to the theory of orthogonal polynomials on the unit circle

A generalization of the Heine--Stieltjes theorem

We extend the Heine-Stieltjes Theorem to concern all (non-degenerate) differential operators preserving the property of having only real zeros. This solves a conjecture of B. Shapiro. The new methods developed are used to describe intricate interlacing relations between the zeros of different pairs of solutions. This extends recent results of Bourget, McMillen and Vargas for the Heun equation and answers their question on how to generalize their results to higher degrees. Many of the results are new even for the classical case.Comment: 12 pages, typos corrected and refined the interlacing theorem

Localization Properties of the Chalker-Coddington Model

The Chalker Coddington quantum network percolation model is numerically pertinent to the understanding of the delocalization transition of the quantum Hall effect. We study the model restricted to a cylinder of perimeter 2M. We prove firstly that the Lyapunov exponents are simple and in particular that the localization length is finite; secondly that this implies spectral localization. Thirdly we prove a Thouless formula and compute the mean Lyapunov exponent which is independent of M.Comment: 29 pages, 1 figure. New section added in which simplicity of the Lyapunov spectrum and finiteness of the localization length are proven. To appear in Annales Henri Poincar

Localization for Random Unitary Operators

We consider unitary analogs of $1-$dimensional Anderson models on $l^2(\Z)$ defined by the product $U_\omega=D_\omega S$ where $S$ is a deterministic unitary and $D_\omega$ is a diagonal matrix of i.i.d. random phases. The operator $S$ is an absolutely continuous band matrix which depends on a parameter controlling the size of its off-diagonal elements. We prove that the spectrum of $U_\omega$ is pure point almost surely for all values of the parameter of $S$. We provide similar results for unitary operators defined on $l^2(\N)$ together with an application to orthogonal polynomials on the unit circle. We get almost sure localization for polynomials characterized by Verblunski coefficients of constant modulus and correlated random phases