Kato's inequality and asymptotic spectral properties for discrete magnetic Laplacians

In this paper, a discrete form of the Kato inequality for discrete magnetic Laplacians on graphs is used to study asymptotic properties of the spectrum of discrete magnetic Schrodinger operators. We use the existence of a ground state with suitable properties for the ordinary combinatorial Laplacian and semigroup domination to relate the combinatorial Laplacian with the discrete magnetic Laplacian.Comment: 14 pages, latex2e, final version, to appear in "Contemporary Math.

Approximating L^2 invariants of amenable covering spaces: A heat kernel approach

In this paper, we prove that the L^2 Betti numbers of an amenable covering space can be approximated by the average Betti numbers of a regular exhaustion, under some hypotheses. We also prove that some L^2 spectral invariants can be approximated by the corresponding average spectral invariants of a regular exhaustion. The main tool which is used is a generalisation of the "principle of not feeling the boundary" (due to M. Kac), for heat kernels associated to boundary value problems.Comment: 14 pages, AMS-LaTeX, replaces an earlier version and contains a much strengthened version of one of the main results. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification. 58G11, 58G18, 58G2

Arithmetic properties of eigenvalues of generalized Harper operators on graphs

Let \Qbar denote the field of complex algebraic numbers. A discrete group $G$ is said to have the $\sigma$-multiplier algebraic eigenvalue property, if for every matrix $A$ with entries in the twisted group ring over the complex algebraic numbers M_d(\Qbar(G,\sigma)), regarded as an operator on $l^2(G)^d$, the eigenvalues of $A$ are algebraic numbers, where $\sigma$ is an algebraic multiplier. Such operators include the Harper operator and the discrete magnetic Laplacian that occur in solid state physics. We prove that any finitely generated amenable, free or surface group has this property for any algebraic multiplier $\sigma$. In the special case when $\sigma$ is rational ($\sigma^n$=1 for some positive integer $n$) this property holds for a larger class of groups, containing free groups and amenable groups, and closed under taking directed unions and extensions with amenable quotients. Included in the paper are proofs of other spectral properties of such operators.Comment: 28 pages, latex2e, paper revise

Approximating L2-invariants, and the Atiyah conjecture

Let G be a torsion free discrete group and let \bar{Q} denote the field of algebraic numbers in C. We prove that \bar{Q}[G] fulfills the Atiyah conjecture if G lies in a certain class of groups D, which contains in particular all groups which are residually torsion free elementary amenable or which are residually free. This result implies that there are no non-trivial zero-divisors in C[G]. The statement relies on new approximation results for L2-Betti numbers over \bar{Q}[G], which are the core of the work done in this paper. Another set of results in the paper is concerned with certain number theoretic properties of eigenvalues for the combinatorial Laplacian on L2-cochains on any normal covering space of a finite CW complex. We establish the absence of eigenvalues that are transcendental numbers, whenever the covering transformation group is either amenable or in the Linnell class \mathcal{C}. We also establish the absence of eigenvalues that are Liouville transcendental numbers whenever the covering transformation group is either residually finite or more generally in a certain large bootstrap class \mathcal{G}. Please take the errata to Schick: "L2-determinant class and approximation of L2-Betti numbers" into account, which are added at the end of the file, rectifying some unproved statements about "amenable extension". As a consequence, throughout, amenable extensions should be extensions with normal subgroups.Comment: AMS-LaTeX2e, 33 pages; improved presentation, new and detailed proof about absence of trancendental eigenvalues; v3: added errata to "L2-determinant class and approximation of L2-Betti numbers", requires to restrict to slightly weaker statement