Schnol's theorem and spectral properties of massless Dirac operators with scalar potentials

The spectra of massless Dirac operators are of essential interest e.g. for the electronic properties of graphene, but fundamental questions such as the existence of spectral gaps remain open. We show that the eigenvalues of massless Dirac operators with suitable real-valued potentials lie inside small sets easily characterised in terms of properties of the potentials, and we prove a Schnol'-type theorem relating spectral points to polynomial boundedness of solutions of the Dirac equation. Moreover, we show that, under minimal hypotheses which leave the potential essentially unrestrained in large parts of space, the spectrum of the massless Dirac operator covers the whole real line; in particular, this will be the case if the potential is nearly constant in a sequence of regions.Comment: 18 page

Spherically symmetric Dirac operators with variable mass and potentials infinite at infinity

We study the spectrum of spherically symmetric Dirac operators in three-dimensional space with potentials tending to infinity at infinity under weak regularity assumptions. We prove that purely absolutely continuous spectrum covers the whole real line if the potential dominates the mass, or scalar potential, term. In the situation where the potential and the scalar potential are identical, the positive part of the spectrum is purely discrete; we show that the negative half-line is filled with purely absolutely continuous spectrum in this case.Comment: 16 pages; submitted to Publ. RIM

Spectral stability of the Coulomb-Dirac Hamiltonian with anomalous magnetic moment

We show that the point spectrum of the standard Coulomb-Dirac operator H_0 is the limit of the point spectrum of the Dirac operator with anomalous magnetic moment H_a as the anomaly parameter tends to 0. For negative angular momentum quantum number kappa, this holds for all Coulomb coupling constants c for which H_0 has a distinguished self-adjoint realisation. For positive kappa, however, there are some exceptional values for c, and in general an index shift between the eigenvalues of H_0 and the limits of eigenvalues of H_a appears, accompanied with additional oscillations of the eigenfunctions of H_a very close to the origin

On the resonances and eigenvalues for a 1D half-crystal with localised impurity

We consider the Schr\"odinger operator $H$ on the half-line with a periodic potential $p$ plus a compactly supported potential $q$. For generic $p$, its essential spectrum has an infinite sequence of open gaps. We determine the asymptotics of the resonance counting function and show that, for sufficiently high energy, each non-degenerate gap contains exactly one eigenvalue or antibound state, giving asymptotics for their positions. Conversely, for any potential $q$ and for any sequences (\s_n)_{1}^\iy, \s_n\in \{0,1\}, and (\vk_n)_1^\iy\in \ell^2, \vk_n\ge 0, there exists a potential $p$ such that \vk_n is the length of the $n$-th gap, $n\in\N$, and $H$ has exactly \s_n eigenvalues and 1-\s_n antibound state in each high-energy gap. Moreover, we show that between any two eigenvalues in a gap, there is an odd number of antibound states, and hence deduce an asymptotic lower bound on the number of antibound states in an adiabatic limit.Comment: 25 page

The HELP inequality on trees

We establish analogues of Hardy and Littlewood's integro-differential equation for Schrödinger-type operators on metric and discrete trees, based on a generalised strong limit-point property of the graph Laplacian

On unbounded positive definite functions

It is well known that positive definite functions are bounded, taking their maximum absolute value at 0. Nevertheless, there are unbounded functions, arising e.g. in potential theory or the study of (continuous) extremal measures, which still exhibit the general characteristics of positive definiteness. Taking a framework set up by Lionel Cooper as a motivation, we study the general properties of such functions which are positive definite in an extended sense. We prove a Bochner-type theorem and, as a consequence, show how unbounded positive definite functions arise as limits of classical positive definite functions, as well as that their space is closed under convolution. Moreover, we provide criteria for a function to be positive definite in the extended sense, showing in particular that complete monotonicity in conjunction with absolute integrability is sufficient

Statistical extraction of process zones and representative subspaces in fracture of random composite

We propose to identify process zones in heterogeneous materials by tailored statistical tools. The process zone is redefined as the part of the structure where the random process cannot be correctly approximated in a low-dimensional deterministic space. Such a low-dimensional space is obtained by a spectral analysis performed on pre-computed solution samples. A greedy algorithm is proposed to identify both process zone and low-dimensional representative subspace for the solution in the complementary region. In addition to the novelty of the tools proposed in this paper for the analysis of localised phenomena, we show that the reduced space generated by the method is a valid basis for the construction of a reduced order model.Comment: Submitted for publication in International Journal for Multiscale Computational Engineerin

A Discrete Hardy-Laptev-Weidl-Type Inequality and Associated Schrödinger-Type Operators

Although the classical Hardy inequality is valid only in the three- and higher dimensional case, Laptev and Weidl established a two-dimensional Hardy-type inequality for the magnetic gradient with an Aharonov-Bohm magnetic potential. Here we consider a discrete analogue, replacing the punctured plane with a radially exponential lattice. In addition to discrete Hardy and Sobolev inequalities, we study the spectral properties of two associated self-adjoint operators. In particular, it is shown that, for suitable potentials, the discrete Schrödingertype operator in the Aharonov-Bohm field has essential spectrum concentrated at 0, and the multiplicity of its lower spectrum satisfies a CLR-type inequality.Although the classical Hardy inequality is valid only in the three- and higher dimensional case, Laptev and Weidl established a two-dimensional Hardy-type inequality for the magnetic gradient with an Aharonov-Bohm magnetic potential. Here we consider a discrete analogue, replacing the punctured plane with a radially exponential lattice. In addition to discrete Hardy and Sobolev inequalities, we study the spectral properties of two associated self-adjoint operators. In particular, it is shown that, for suitable potentials, the discrete Schrödingertype operator in the Aharonov-Bohm field has essential spectrum concentrated at 0, and the multiplicity of its lower spectrum satisfies a CLR-type inequality