Quantitative Landis-type result for Dirac operators

Abstract

We study quantitative unique continuation at infinity for Dirac equations with bounded matrix-valued potentials. For the massless Dirac operator $\mathcal{D}_n$ in $\mathbb{R}^n$, we establish a Landis-type estimate showing that the vanishing order of any nontrivial bounded solution of $( \mathcal{D}_n + \mathbb{V} ) \varphi = 0$ satisfies a lower bound of order $\exp(-\kappa R^{2} (\log R)^{2})$ as $|x|=R\to \infty$; the quadratic growth in the exponent is sharp, in view of previous known results. Our proof follows a Bourgain--Kenig type approach based on a Carleman inequality for Dirac operators which relies on a local H\"older regularity result, which we also prove. In two dimension, we obtain improved quantitative estimates under symmetry assumptions on the potential $\mathbb{V}$ and for real-valued solutions. Finally, we also derive qualitative Landis-type results for Dirac equations with decaying potentials, including critical decay rates.