A generalised Gauss circle problem and integrated density of states

Counting lattice points inside a ball of large radius in Euclidean space is a classical problem in analytic number theory, dating back to Gauss. We propose a variation on this problem: studying the asymptotics of the measure of an integer lattice of affine planes inside a ball. The first term is the volume of the ball; we study the size of the remainder term. While the classical problem is equivalent to counting eigenvalues of the Laplace operator on the torus, our variation corresponds to the integrated density of states of the Laplace operator on the product of a torus with Euclidean space. The asymptotics we obtain are then used to compute the density of states of the magnetic Schroedinger operator.Comment: 17 page

Bethe-Sommerfeld Conjecture

We consider Schroedinger operator $-\Delta+V$ in $R^d$ ($d\ge 2$) with smooth periodic potential $V$ and prove that there are only finitely many gaps in its spectrum.Comment: 59 pages, 10 figures; to appear in Annales Henri Poincar

On the principal eigenvalue of a Robin problem with a large parameter

We study the asymptotic behaviour of the principal eigenvalue of a Robin (or generalised Neumann) problem with a large parameter in the boundary condition for the Laplacian in a piecewise smooth domain. We show that the leading asymptotic term depends only on the singularities of the boundary of the domain, and give either explicit expressions or two-sided estimates for this term in a variety of situations.Comment: 16 pages; no figures; replaces math.SP/0403179; completely re-writte

Perturbation theory for almost-periodic potentials I. One-dimensional case

We consider the family of operators $H^{(\epsilon)}:=-\frac{d^2}{dx^2}+\epsilon V$ in ${\mathbb R}$ with almost-periodic potential $V$. We study the behaviour of the integrated density of states (IDS) $N(H^{(\epsilon)};\lambda)$ when $\epsilon\to 0$ and $\lambda$ is a fixed energy. When $V$ is quasi-periodic (i.e. is a finite sum of complex exponentials), we prove that for each $\lambda$ the IDS has a complete asymptotic expansion in powers of $\epsilon$; these powers are either integer, or in some special cases half-integer. These results are new even for periodic $V$. We also prove that when the potential is neither periodic nor quasi-periodic, there is an exceptional set $\mathcal S$ of energies (which we call $\hbox{the super-resonance set}$) such that for any $\sqrt\lambda\not\in\mathcal S$ there is a complete power asymptotic expansion of IDS, and when $\sqrt\lambda\in\mathcal S$, then even two-terms power asymptotic expansion does not exist. We also show that the super-resonant set $\mathcal S$ is uncountable, but has measure zero. Finally, we prove that the length of any spectral gap of $H^{(\epsilon)}$ has a complete asymptotic expansion in natural powers of $\epsilon$ when $\epsilon\to 0$.Comment: journal version, some misprints are fixed; 28 pages, 1 figur

Fourier transform, null variety, and Laplacian's eigenvalues

We consider a quantity κ(Ω)—the distance to the origin from the null variety of the Fourier transform of the characteristic function of Ω. We conjecture, firstly, that κ(Ω) is maximised, among all convex balanced domains of a fixed volume, by a ball, and also that κ(Ω) is bounded above by the square root of the second Dirichlet eigenvalue of Ω. We prove some weaker versions of these conjectures in dimension two, as well as their validity for domains asymptotically close to a disk, and also discuss further links between κ(Ω) and the eigenvalues of the Laplacians

Classical Wave methods and modern gauge transforms: Spectral Asymptotics in the one dimensional case

In this article, we consider the asymptotic behaviour of the spectral function of Schr\"odinger operators on the real line. Let $H: L^2(\mathbb{R})\to L^2(\mathbb{R})$ have the form $$H:=-\frac{d^2}{dx^2}+V,$$ where $V$ is a formally self-adjoint first order differential operator with smooth coefficients, bounded with all derivatives. We show that the kernel of the spectral projector, $\mathbb{1}_{(-\infty,\rho^2]}(H)$, has a complete asymptotic expansion in powers of $\rho$. This settles the 1-dimensional case of a conjecture made by the last two authors.Comment: expanded exposition and simplified various steps proof