Ballistic Transport for Discrete Multi-Dimensional Schr\"odinger Operators With Decaying Potential

Abstract

We consider the discrete Schr\"odinger operator $H = -\Delta + V$ on $\ell^2(\mathbb{Z}^d)$ with a decaying potential, in arbitrary lattice dimension $d\in\mathbb{N}^*$, where $\Delta$ is the standard discrete Laplacian and $V_n = o(|n|^{-1})$ as $|n| \to \infty$. %We prove the absence of singular continuous spectrum for $H$. For the unitary evolution $e^{-i tH}$, we prove that it exhibits ballistic transport in the sense that, for any $r > 0$, the weighted $\ell^2-$norm $$\|e^{-i tH}u\|_r:=\left(\sum_{n\in\mathbb{Z}^d} (1+|n|^2)^{r} |(e^{-i tH}u)_n|^2\right)^\frac12 $$ grows at rate $\simeq t^r$ as $t\to \infty$, provided that the initial state $u$ is in the absolutely continuous subspace and satisfies $\|u\|_r<\infty$. The proof relies on commutator methods and Mourre estimate, which yields quantitative lower bounds on transport for operators with purely absolutely continuous spectrum over appropriate spectral intervals.