Higher order spectral shift of Euclidean Callias operators

Abstract

We consider Dirac-Schr\"odinger operators over odd-dimensional Euclidean space. The conditions for the potential are based on those of C. Callias in his famous paper on the corresponding index problem. However, we treat the case where the potential can take values in unbounded operators of a separable Hilbert space, and crucially, we also do not assume that the potential needs to be invertible outside a compact region. Hence, the Dirac-Schr\"odinger operator is not necessarily Fredholm. In the setup we discuss, it however still admits a related trace formula in terms of the underlying potential. In this paper we express the trace formula for these Callias-type operators in terms of higher order spectral shift functions, leading to a functional equation which generalizes a known functional equation found first by A. Pushnitski. To the knowledge of the author, this paper presents the first multi-dimensional non-Fredholm extension of the Callias index theorem involving higher order spectral shift functions. More precisely, we also show that under a Lebesgue point condition on the higher order spectral shift function associated to the potential, the Callias-type operator admits a regularized index, even in non-Fredholm settings. This corresponds to a known Witten index result in the one-dimensional case shown by A. Carey et al. The regularized index that we introduce is a minor extension of the classical Witten index, and we present an index formula, which generalizes the classical Callias index theorem. As an example, we treat the case of $(d+1)$-massless Dirac-Schr\"odinger operators, for which we calculate the associated higher order spectral shift functions.