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David Damanik

Publications and source records attributed to David Damanik.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

Homogeneity of the spectrum for quasi-periodic Schrödinger operators

We consider the one-dimensional discrete Schrödinger operator $$ \bigl[H(x,ω)φ\bigr](n)\equiv -φ(n-1)-φ(n+1) + V(x + nω)φ(n)\ , $$ $n \in \mathbb{Z}$, $x,ω\in [0, 1]$ with real-analytic potential $V(x)$. Assume $L(E,ω)>0$ for all $E$. Let $\mathcal{S}_ω$ be the spectrum of $H(x,ω)$. For all $ω$ obeying the Diophantine condition $ω\in \mathbb{T}_{c,a}$, we show the following: if $\mathcal{S}_ω\cap (E',E")\neq \emptyset$, then $\mathcal{S}_ω\cap (E',E")$ is homogeneous in the sense of Carleson (see [Car83]). Furthermore, we prove, that if $G_i$, $i=1,2$ are two gaps with $1 > |G_1| \ge |G_2|$, then $|G_2|\lesssim \exp\left(-(\log \mathrm{dist} (G_1,G_2))^A\right)$, $A\gg 1$. Moreover, the same estimates hold for the gaps in the spectrum on a finite interval, that is, for $\mathcal S_{N,ω}:=\cup_{x\in\mathbb T}\mathrm{spec} H_{[-N,N]}(x,ω) $, $N \ge 1 $, where $H_{[-N, N]}(x, ω)$ is the Schrödinger operator restricted to the interval $[-N,N]$ with Dirichlet boundary conditions. In particular, all these results hold for the almost Mathieu operator with $|λ| \neq 1$. For the supercritical almost Mathieu operator, we combine the methods of [GolSch08] with Jitomirskaya's approach from [Jit99] to establish most of the results from [GolSch08] with $ω$ obeying a strong Diophantine condition.

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Quantum Dynamics of Periodic and Limit-Periodic Jacobi and Block Jacobi Matrices with Applications to Some Quantum Many Body Problems

We investigate quantum dynamics with the underlying Hamiltonian being a Jacobi or a block Jacobi matrix with the diagonal and the off-diagonal terms modulated by a periodic or a limit-periodic sequence. In particular, we investigate the transport exponents. In the periodic case we demonstrate ballistic transport, while in the limit-periodic case we discuss various phenomena such as quasi-ballistic transport and weak dynamical localization. We also present applications to some quantum many body problems. In particular, we establish for the anisotropic XY chain on $\mathbb{Z}$ with periodic parameters an explicit strictly positive lower bound for the Lieb-Robinson velocity.

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Almost Everywhere Positivity of the Lyapunov Exponent for the Doubling Map

We show that discrete one-dimensional Schrödinger operators on the half-line with ergodic potentials generated by the doubling map on the circle, $V_θ(n) = f(2^n θ)$, may be realized as the half-line restrictions of a non-deterministic family of whole-line operators. As a consequence, the Lyapunov exponent is almost everywhere positive and the absolutely continuous spectrum is almost surely empty.

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The Spectrum of a Schrödinger Operator With Small Quasi-Periodic Potential is Homogeneous

We consider the quasi-periodic Schrödinger operator $$ [H ψ](x) = -ψ"(x) + V(x) ψ(x) $$ in $L^2(\mathbb{R})$, where the potential is given by $$ V(x) = \sum_{m \in \mathbb{Z}^ν\setminus \{ 0 \}} c(m)\exp (2πi m ωx) $$ with a Diophantine frequency vector $ω= (ω_1, \dots, ω_ν) \in \mathbb{R}^ν$ and exponentially decaying Fourier coefficients $|c(m)| \le \varepsilon \exp(-κ_0|m|)$. In the regime of small $\varepsilon > 0$ we show that the spectrum of the operator $H$ is homogeneous in the sense of Carleson.

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Transport Exponents of Sturmian Hamiltonians

We consider discrete Schrödinger operators with Sturmian potentials and study the transport exponents associated with them. Under suitable assumptions on the frequency, we establish upper and lower bounds for the upper transport exponents. As an application of these bounds, we identify the large coupling asymptotics of the upper transport exponents for frequencies of constant type. We also bound the large coupling asymptotics uniformly from above for Lebesgue-typical frequency. A particular consequence of these results is that for most frequencies of constant type, transport is faster than for Lebesgue almost every frequency. We also show quasi-ballistic transport for all coupling constants, generic frequencies, and suitable phases.

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On the Inverse Spectral Problem for the Quasi-Periodic Schrödinger Equation

We study the quasi-periodic Schrödinger equation $$ -ψ"(x) + V(x) ψ(x) = E ψ(x), \qquad x \in \IR $$ in the regime of "small" $V$. Let $(E_m',E"_m)$, $m \in \zv$, be the standard labeled gaps in the spectrum. Our main result says that if $E"_m - E'_m \le \ve \exp(-κ_0 |m|)$ for all $m \in \zv$, with $\ve$ being small enough, depending on $κ_0 > 0$ and the frequency vector involved, then the Fourier coefficients of $V$ obey $|c(m)| \le \ve^{1/2} \exp(-\frac{κ_0}{2} |m|)$ for all $m \in \zv$. On the other hand we prove that if $|c(m)| \le \ve \exp(-κ_0 |m|)$ with $\ve$ being small enough, depending on $κ_0 > 0$ and the frequency vector involved, then $E"_m - E'_m \le 2 \ve \exp(-\frac{κ_0}{2} |m|)$.

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A Multi-Scale Analysis Scheme on Abelian Groups with an Application to Operators Dual to Hill's Equation

We present an abstract multiscale analysis scheme for matrix functions $(H_{\varepsilon}(m,n))_{m,n\in \mathfrak{T}}$, where $\mathfrak{T}$ is an Abelian group equipped with a distance $|\cdot|$. This is an extension of the scheme developed by Damanik and Goldstein for the special case $\mathfrak{T} = \mathbb{Z}^ν$. Our main motivation for working out this extension comes from an application to matrix functions which are dual to certain Hill operators. These operators take the form $H_{\tildeω}=-\frac{d^2}{dx^2} + \varepsilon U(\tildeωx)$, where $U$ is a real smooth function on the torus $\mathbb{T}^ν$, $\tildeω\in \mathbb{R}^ν$ is a vector with rational components, and $\varepsilon$ is a small parameter. The group in this particular case is the quotient $\mathfrak{T} = \mathbb{Z}^ν/\{m\in\mathbb{Z}^ν:m\tildeω=0\}$. We show that the general theory indeed applies to this special case, provided that the rational frequency vector $\tildeω$ obeys a suitable Diophantine condition in a large box of modes. Despite the fact that in this setting the orbits $k + mω$, $k \in \mathbb{R}$, $m\in\mathbb{Z}^ν$ are not dense, the dual eigenfunctions are exponentially localized and the eigenvalues of the operators can be described as $E(k+mω)$ with $E(k)$ being a "nice" monotonic function of the impulse $k \ge 0$. This enables us to derive a description of the Floquet solutions and the band-gap structure of the spectrum, which we will use in a companion paper to develop a complete inverse spectral theory for the Sturm-Liouville equation with small quasi-periodic potential via periodic approximation of the frequency. The analysis of the gaps in the range of the function $E(k)$ plays a crucial role in this approach.

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Singular Density of States Measure for Subshift and Quasi-Periodic Schrödinger Operators

Simon's subshift conjecture states that for every aperiodic minimal subshift of Verblunsky coefficients, the common essential support of the associated measures has zero Lebesgue measure. We disprove this conjecture in this paper, both in the form stated and in the analogous formulation of it for discrete Schrödinger operators. In addition we prove a weak version of the conjecture in the Schrödinger setting. Namely, under some additional assumptions on the subshift, we show that the density of states measure, a natural measure associated with the operator family and whose topological support is equal to the spectrum, is singular. We also consider one-frequency quasi-periodic Schrödinger operators with continuous sampling functions and show that generically, the density of states measure is singular as well.

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Finite Automata With Restricted Two-Way Motion

We consider finite two-way automata and measure the use of two-way motion by counting the number of left moves in accepting computations. Restriction of the automata according to this measure allows us to study in detail the use of two-way motion for the acceptance of regular languages in terms of state complexity. The two-way spectrum of a given regular language is introduced. This quantity reflects the change of size of minimal accepting devices if the use of two-way motion is increased incrementally. We give examples for spectra, prove uniform upper and lower bounds and study their sharpness. We also have state complexity results for two-way automata with uniformly bounded use of two-way motion.

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Uniform Hyperbolicity for Szegő Cocycles and Applications to Random CMV Matrices and the Ising Model

We consider products of the matrices associated with the Szegő recursion from the theory of orthogonal polynomials on the unit circle and show that under suitable assumptions, their norms grow exponentially in the number of factors. In the language of dynamical systems, this result expresses a uniform hyperbolicity statement. We present two applications of this result. On the one hand, we identify explicitly the almost sure spectrum of extended CMV matrices with non-negative random Verblunsky coefficients. On the other hand, we show that no Ising model in one dimension exhibits a phase transition. Also, in the case of dynamically generated interaction couplings, we describe a gap labeling theorem for the Lee-Yang zeros in the thermodynamic limit.

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New Anomalous Lieb-Robinson Bounds in Quasi-Periodic XY Chains

We announce and sketch the rigorous proof of a new kind of anomalous (or sub-ballistic) Lieb-Robinson bound for an isotropic XY chain in a quasi-periodic transversal magnetic field. By "anomalous", we mean that the usual effective light cone defined by $|x|\leq v|t|$ is replaced by the region $|x|\leq v|t|^α$ for some $0<α<1$. In fact, we can characterize exactly the values of $α$ for which this holds as those exceeding the upper transport exponent $α_u^+$ of an appropriate one-body discrete Schrödinger operator. Previous study has produced a good amount of quantitative information on $α_u^+$. The result is obtained by mapping to free fermions, obtaining good dynamical bounds on the one-body level by adapting techniques developed by Damanik, Gorodetski, Tcheremchantsev, and Yessen and then "pulling back" these bounds through the non-local Jordan-Wigner transformation, following an idea of Hamza, Sims, and Stolz. To our knowledge, this is the first rigorous derivation of anomalous many-body transport. We also explain why our method does not extend to yield anomalous LR bounds of power-law type if one replaces the quasi-periodic field by a random dimer field.

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Counterexamples to the Kotani-Last Conjecture for Continuum Schrödinger Operators via Character-Automorphic Hardy Spaces

The Kotani-Last conjecture states that every ergodic operator in one space dimension with non-empty absolutely continuous spectrum must have almost periodic coefficients. This statement makes sense in a variety of settings; for example, discrete Schrödinger operators, Jacobi matrices, CMV matrices, and continuum Schrödinger operators. In the main body of this paper we show how to construct counterexamples to the Kotani-Last conjecture for continuum Schrödinger operators by adapting the approach developed by Volberg and Yuditskii to construct counterexamples to the Kotani-Last conjecture for Jacobi matrices. This approach relates the reflectionless operators associated with the prescribed spectrum to a family of character-automorphic Hardy spaces and then relates the shift action on the space of operators to the resulting action on the associated characters. The key to our approach is an explicit correspondence between the space of continuum reflectionless Schrödinger operators associated with a given set and the space of reflectionless Jacobi matrices associated with a derived set. Once this correspondence is established we can rely to a large extent on the previous work of Volberg and Yuditskii to produce the resulting action on the space of characters. We analyze this action and identify situations where we can observe absolute continuity without almost periodicity. In the appendix we show how to implement this strategy and obtain analogous results for extended CMV matrices.

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Spectral Properties of Schrödinger Operators Arising in the Study of Quasicrystals

We survey results that have been obtained for self-adjoint operators, and especially Schrödinger operators, associated with mathematical models of quasicrystals. After presenting general results that hold in arbitrary dimensions, we focus our attention on the one-dimensional case, and in particular on several key examples. The most prominent of these is the Fibonacci Hamiltonian, for which much is known by now and to which an entire section is devoted here. Other examples that are discussed in detail are given by the more general class of Schrödinger operators with Sturmian potentials. We put some emphasis on the methods that have been introduced quite recently in the study of these operators, many of them coming from hyperbolic dynamics. We conclude with a multitude of numerical calculations that illustrate the validity of the known rigorous results and suggest conjectures for further exploration.

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The Fibonacci Hamiltonian

We consider the Fibonacci Hamiltonian, the central model in the study of electronic properties of one-dimensional quasicrystals, and provide a detailed description of its spectrum and spectral characteristics (namely, the optimal Hölder exponent of the integrated density of states, the dimension of the density of states measure, the dimension of the spectrum, and the upper transport exponent) for all values of the coupling constant (in contrast to all previous quantitative results, which could be established only in the regime of small or large coupling). In particular, we show that the spectrum of this operator is a dynamically defined Cantor set and that the density of states measure is exact-dimensional; this implies that all standard fractal dimensions coincide in each case. We show that all the gaps of the spectrum allowed by the gap labeling theorem are open for all values of the coupling constant. Also, we establish strict inequalities between the four spectral characteristics in question, and provide the exact large coupling asymptotics of the dimension of the density of states measure (for the other three quantities, the large coupling asymptotics were known before). A crucial ingredient of the paper is the relation between spectral properties of the Fibonacci Hamiltonian and dynamical properties of the Fibonacci trace map (such as dimensional characteristics of the non-wandering hyperbolic set and its measure of maximal entropy as well as other equilibrium measures, topological entropy, multipliers of periodic orbits). We establish exact identities relating the spectral and dynamical quantities, and show the connection between the spectral quantities and the thermodynamic pressure function.

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Almost Ballistic Transport for the Weakly Coupled Fibonacci Hamiltonian

We prove estimates for the transport exponents associated with the weakly coupled Fibonacci Hamiltonian. It follows in particular that the upper transport exponent $\tilde α^\pm_u$ approaches the value one as the coupling goes to zero. Moreover, for sufficiently small coupling, $\tilde α^\pm_u$ strictly exceeds the fractal dimension of the spectrum.

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Orthogonal Polynomials on the Unit Circle with Fibonacci Verblunsky Coefficients, II. Applications

We consider CMV matrices with Verblunsky coefficients determined in an appropriate way by the Fibonacci sequence and present two applications of the spectral theory of such matrices to problems in mathematical physics. In our first application we estimate the spreading rates of quantum walks on the line with time-independent coins following the Fibonacci sequence. The estimates we obtain are explicit in terms of the parameters of the system. In our second application, we establish a connection between the classical nearest neighbor Ising model on the one-dimensional lattice in the complex magnetic field regime, and CMV operators. In particular, given a sequence of nearest-neighbor interaction couplings, we construct a sequence of Verblunsky coefficients, such that the support of the Lee-Yang zeros of the partition function for the Ising model in the thermodynamic limit coincides with the essential spectrum of the CMV matrix with the constructed Verblunsky coefficients. Under certain technical conditions, we also show that the zeros distribution measure coincides with the density of states measure for the CMV matrix.

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