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Jake Fillman

Publications and source records attributed to Jake Fillman.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Thin Spectra and Singular Continuous Spectral Measures for Limit-Periodic Jacobi Matrices

This paper investigates the spectral properties of Jacobi matrices with limit-periodic coefficients. We show that for a residual set of such matrices, the spectrum is a Cantor set of zero Lebesgue measure, and the spectral measures are purely singular continuous. For a dense set of limit-periodic Jacobi matrices we can strengthen the result and show that the spectrum is a Cantor set of zero lower box counting dimension, and hence in particular of zero Hausdorff dimension, while still retaining the singular continuity of the spectral type. We also show how results of this nature can be established by fixing the off-diagonal coefficients and varying only the diagonal coefficients, and, in a more restricted version, by fixing the diagonal coefficients to be zero and varying only the off-diagonal coefficients. We apply these results to produce examples of weighted Laplacians on the multidimensional integer lattice having purely singular continuous spectral type and zero-dimensional spectrum.

math.SP

Gap Labels for Zeros of the Partition Function of the 1D Ising Model via the Schwartzman Homomorphism

Inspired by the 1995 paper of Baake--Grimm--Pisani, we aim to explain the empirical observation that the distribution of Lee--Yang zeros corresponding to a one-dimensional Ising model appears to follow the gap labelling theorem. This follows by combining two main ingredients: first, the relation between the transfer matrix formalism for 1D Ising model and an ostensibly unrelated matrix formalism generating the Szegő recursion for orthogonal polynomials on the unit circle, and second, the gap labelling theorem for CMV matrices.

math.SP

Discontinuities of the Integrated Density of States for Laplacians Associated with Penrose and Ammann-Beenker Tilings

Aperiodic substitution tilings provide popular models for quasicrystals, materials exhibiting aperiodic order. We study the graph Laplacian associated with four tilings from the mutual local derivability class of the Penrose tiling, as well as the Ammann--Beenker tiling. In each case we exhibit locally-supported eigenfunctions, which necessarily cause jump discontinuities in the integrated density of states for these models. By bounding the multiplicities of these locally-supported modes, in several cases we provide concrete lower bounds on this jump. These results suggest a host of questions about spectral properties of the Laplacian on aperiodic tilings, which we collect at the end of the paper.

math.SP

Irreducibility of the Bloch Variety for Finite-Range Schrödinger Operators

We study the Bloch variety of discrete Schrödinger operators associated with a complex periodic potential and a general finite-range interaction, showing that the Bloch variety is irreducible for a wide class of lattice geometries in arbitrary dimension. Examples include the triangular lattice and the extended Harper lattice.

math-ph

Johnson-Schwartzman Gap Labelling for Ergodic Jacobi Matrices

We consider two-sided Jacobi matrices whose coefficients are obtained by continuous sampling along the orbits of a homeomorphim of a compact metric space. Given an ergodic probability measure, we study the topological structure of the associated almost sure spectrum. We establish a gap labelling theorem in the spirit of Johnson and Schwartzman. That is, we show that the constant value the integrated density of states takes in a gap of the spectrum must belong to the countable Schwartzman group of the base dynamics. This result is a natural companion to a recent result of Alkorn and Zhang, which established a Johnson-type theorem for the families of Jacobi matrices in question.

math.SP

On Sums of Semibounded Cantor Sets

Motivated by questions arising in the study of the spectral theory of models of aperiodic order, we investigate sums of functions of semibounded closed subsets of the real line. We show that under suitable thickness assumptions on the sets and growth assumptions on the functions, the sums of such sets contain half-lines. We also give examples to show our criteria are sharp in suitable regimes.

math.CA

The Almost Sure Essential Spectrum of the Doubling Map Model is Connected

We consider discrete Schrödinger operators on the half line with potentials generated by the doubling map and continuous sampling functions. We show that the essential spectrum of these operators is always connected. This result is obtained by computing the subgroup of the range of the Schwartzman homomorphism associated with homotopy classes of continuous maps on the suspension of the standard solenoid that factor through the suspension of the doubling map and then showing that this subgroup characterizes the topological structure of the spectrum.

math.SP

Limit-Periodic Dirac Operators with Thin Spectra

We prove that limit-periodic Dirac operators generically have spectra of zero Lebesgue measure and that a dense set of them have spectra of zero Hausdorff dimension. The proof combines ideas of Avila from a Schrödinger setting with a new commutation argument for generating open spectral gaps. This overcomes an obstacle previously observed in the literature; namely, in Schrödinger-type settings, translation of the spectral measure corresponds to small $L^\infty$-perturbations of the operator data, but this is not true for Dirac or CMV operators. The new argument is much more model-independent. To demonstrate this, we also apply the argument to prove generic zero-measure spectrum for CMV matrices with limit-periodic Verblunsky coefficients.

math.SP

Spectral Characteristics of Schrödinger Operators Generated by Product Systems

We study ergodic Schrödinger operators defined over product dynamical systems in which one factor is periodic and the other factor is either a subshift over a finite alphabet or an irrational rotation of the circle. In the case in which one factor is a Boshernitzan subshift, we prove that either the resulting operators are periodic or the resulting spectra must be Cantor sets. The main ingredient is a suitable stability result for Boshernitzan's criterion under taking products. We also discuss the stability of purely singular continuous spectrum, which, given the zero-measure spectrum result, amounts to stability results for eigenvalue exclusion. In particular, we examine situations in which the existing criteria for the exclusion of eigenvalues are stable under periodic perturbations. As a highlight of this, we show that any simple Toeplitz subshift over a binary alphabet exhibits uniform absence of eigenvalues on the hull for any periodic perturbation whose period is commensurate with the coding sequence. In the case of a full shift, we give an effective criterion to compute exactly the spectrum of a random Anderson model perturbed by a potential of period two, and we further show that the naive generalization of this criterion does not hold for period three. Next, we consider quasi-periodic potentials with potentials generated by trigonometric polynomials with periodic background. We show that the quasiperiodic cocycle induced by passing to blocks of period length is subcritical when the coupling constant is small and supercritical when the coupling constant is large. Thus, the spectral type is absolutely continuous for small coupling and pure point (for a.e.\ frequency and phase) when the coupling is large.

math.SP

Gap Labelling for Discrete One-Dimensional Ergodic Schrödinger Operators

In this survey, we give an introduction to and proof of the gap labelling theorem for discrete one-dimensional ergodic Schrödinger operators via the Schwartzman homomorphism. To keep the paper relatively self-contained, we include background on the integrated density of states, the oscillation theorem for 1D operators, and the construction of the Schwartzman homomorphism. We illustrate the result with some examples. In particular, we show how to use the Schwartzman formalism to recover the classical gap-labelling theorem for almost-periodic potentials. We also consider operators generated by subshifts and operators generated by affine homeomorphisms of finite-dimensional tori. In the latter case, one can use the gap-labelling theorem to show that the spectrum associated with potentials generated by suitable transformations (such as Arnold's cat map) is an interval.

math.SP

On Simon's Hausdorff Dimension Conjecture

Barry Simon conjectured in 2005 that the Szegő matrices, associated with Verblunsky coefficients $\{α_n\}_{n\in\mathbb{Z}_+}$ obeying $\sum_{n = 0}^\infty n^γ|α_n|^2 < \infty$ for some $γ\in (0,1)$, are bounded for values $z \in \partial \mathbb{D}$ outside a set of Hausdorff dimension no more than $1 - γ$. Three of the authors recently proved this conjecture by employing a Prüfer variable approach that is analogous to work Christian Remling did on Schrödinger operators. This paper is a companion piece that presents a simple proof of a weak version of Simon's conjecture that is in the spirit of a proof of a different conjecture of Simon.

math.SP

Zero Measure Spectrum for Multi-Frequency Schrödinger Operators

Building on works of Berthé--Steiner--Thuswaldner and Fogg--Nous we show that on the two-dimensional torus, Lebesgue almost every translation admits a natural coding such that the associated subshift satisfies the Boshernitzan criterion. As a consequence we show that for these torus translations, every quasi-periodic potential can be approximated uniformly by one for which the associated Schrödinger operator has Cantor spectrum of zero Lebesgue measure. We also describe a framework that can allow this to be extended to higher-dimensional tori.

math.SP

Schrödinger Operators with Thin Spectra

The determination of the spectrum of a Schrödinger operator is a fundamental problem in mathematical quantum mechanics. We discuss a series of results showing that Schrödinger operators can exhibit spectra that are remarkably thin in the sense of Lebesgue measure and fractal dimensions. We begin with a brief discussion of results in the periodic theory, and then move to a discussion of aperiodic models with thin spectra.

math.SP

Multidimensional Schrödinger Operators Whose Spectrum Features a Half-Line and a Cantor Set

We construct multidimensional Schrödinger operators with a spectrum that has no gaps at high energies and that is nowhere dense at low energies. This gives the first example for which this widely expected topological structure of the spectrum in the class of uniformly recurrent Schrödinger operators, namely the coexistence of a half-line and a Cantor-type structure, can be confirmed. Our construction uses Schrödinger operators with separable potentials that decompose into one-dimensional potentials generated by the Fibonacci sequence and relies on the study of such operators via the trace map and the Fricke-Vogt invariant. To show that the spectrum contains a half-line, we prove an abstract Bethe--Sommerfeld criterion for sums of Cantor sets which may be of independent interest.

math.SP

Localization for Anderson Models on Metric and Discrete Tree Graphs

We establish spectral and dynamical localization for several Anderson models on metric and discrete radial trees. The localization results are obtained on compact intervals contained in the complement of discrete sets of exceptional energies. All results are proved under the minimal hypothesis on the type of disorder: the random variables generating the trees assume at least two distinct values. This level of generality, in particular, allows us to treat radial trees with disordered geometry as well as Schrödinger operators with Bernoulli-type singular potentials. Our methods are based on an interplay between graph-theoretical properties of radial trees and spectral analysis of the associated random differential and difference operators on the half-line.

math.SP

Ergodic Schrödinger Operators in the Infinite Measure Setting

We develop the basic theory of ergodic Schrödinger operators, which is well known for ergodic probability measures, in the case of a base dynamics on an infinite measure space. This includes the almost sure constancy of the spectrum and the spectral type, the definition and discussion of the density of states measure and the Lyapunov exponent, as well as a version of the Pastur--Ishii theorem. We also give some counterexamples that demonstrate that some results do not extend from the finite measure case to the infinite measure case. These examples are based on some constructions in infinite ergodic theory that may be of independent interest.

math.SP

Random Hamiltonians with Arbitrary Point Interactions

We consider disordered Hamiltonians given by the Laplace operator subject to arbitrary random self-adjoint singular perturbations supported on random discrete subsets of the real line. Under minimal assumptions on the type of disorder, we prove the following dichotomy: Either every realization of the random operator has purely absolutely continuous spectrum or spectral and exponential dynamical localization hold. In particular, we establish Anderson localization for Schrödinger operators with Bernoulli-type random singular potential and singular density.

math.SP