arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to E Brian Davies.
We compare two C*-algebras that have been used to study the essential spectrum. This is done by considering a simple second order elliptic differential operator acting in L^2(R^N), which is affiliated with one or both of the algebras depending on the behaviour of the coefficients.
This paper provides a new proof of a theorem of Chandler-Wilde, Chonchaiya and Lindner that the spectra of a certain class of infinite, random, tridiagonal matrices contain the unit disc almost surely. It also obtains an analogous result for a more general class of random matrices whose spectra contain a hole around the origin. The presence of the hole forces substantial changes to the analysis.