arXiv subjects

Jake Fillman

Publications and source records attributed to Jake Fillman.

62 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Spectral Characteristics of the Unitary Critical Almost-Mathieu Operator

We discuss spectral characteristics of a one-dimensional quantum walk whose coins are distributed quasi-periodically. The unitary update rule of this quantum walk shares many spectral characteristics with the critical Almost-Mathieu Operator; however, it possesses a feature not present in the Almost-Mathieu Operator, namely singularity of the associated cocycles (this feature is, however, present in the so-called Extended Harper's Model). We show that this operator has empty absolutely continuous spectrum and that the Lyapunov exponent vanishes on the spectrum; hence, this model exhibits Cantor spectrum of zero Lebesgue measure for all irrational frequencies and arbitrary phase, which in physics is known as Hofstadter's butterfly. In fact, we will show something stronger, namely, that all spectral parameters in the spectrum are of critical type, in the language of Avila's global theory of analytic quasiperiodic cocycles. We further prove that it has empty point spectrum for each irrational frequency and away from a frequency-dependent set of phases having Lebesgue measure zero. The key ingredients in our proofs are an adaptation of Avila's Global Theory to the present setting, self-duality via the Fourier transform, and a Johnson-type theorem for singular dynamically defined CMV matrices which characterizes their spectra as the set of spectral parameters at which the associated cocycles fail to admit a dominated splitting.

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arXiv2015

Dynamics of Unitary Operators

We consider the iteration of a unitary operator on a separable Hilbert space and study the spreading rates of the associated discrete-time dynamical system relative to a given orthonormal basis. We prove lower bounds for the transport exponents, which measure the time-averaged spreading on a power-law scale, in terms of dimensional properties of the spectral measure associated with the unitary operator and the initial state. These results are the unitary analog of results established in recent years for the dynamics of the Schrödinger equation, which is a continuum-time dynamical system associated with a self-adjoint operator. We discuss how these general results may be studied by means of subordinacy theory in cases where the unitary operator is given by a CMV matrix. An example of particular interest in which this scenario arises is given by a time-homogeneous quantum walk on the integers. For the particular case of the time-homogeneous Fibonacci quantum walk, we illustrate how these components work together and produce explicit lower bounds for the transport exponents associated with this model.

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arXiv2015

Spectral Homogeneity of Limit-Periodic Schrödinger Operators

We prove that the spectrum of a limit-periodic Schrödinger operator is homogeneous in the sense of Carleson whenever the potential obeys the Pastur--Tkachenko condition. This implies that a dense set of limit-periodic Schrödinger operators have purely absolutely continuous spectrum supported on a homogeneous Cantor set. When combined with work of Gesztesy--Yuditskii, this also implies that the spectrum of a Pastur--Tkachenko potential has infinite gap length whenever the potential fails to be uniformly almost periodic.

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arXiv2015

Mixed spectral regimes for square Fibonacci Hamiltonians

For the square tridiagonal Fibonacci Hamiltonian, we prove existence of an open set of parameters which yield mixed interval-Cantor spectra (i.e. spectra containing an interval as well as a Cantor set), as well as mixed density of states measure (i.e. one whose absolutely continuous and singular continuous components are both nonzero). Using the methods developed in this paper, we also show existence of parameter regimes for the square continuum Fibonacci Schrodinger operator yielding mixed interval-Cantor spectra. These examples provide the first explicit examples of an interesting phenomenon that has not hitherto been observed in aperiodic Hamiltonians. Moreover, while we focus only on the Fibonacci model, our techniques are equally applicable to models based on any two-letter primitive invertible substitution.

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arXiv2014

Spectral Approximation for Quasiperiodic Jacobi Operators

Quasiperiodic Jacobi operators arise as mathematical models of quasicrystals and in more general studies of structures exhibiting aperiodic order. The spectra of these self-adjoint operators can be quite exotic, such as Cantor sets, and their fine properties yield insight into associated dynamical systems. Quasiperiodic operators can be approximated by periodic ones, the spectra of which can be computed via two finite dimensional eigenvalue problems. Since long periods are necessary to get detailed approximations, both computational efficiency and numerical accuracy become a concern. We describe a simple method for numerically computing the spectrum of a period-$K$ Jacobi operator in $O(K^2)$ operations, and use it to investigate the spectra of Schrödinger operators with Fibonacci, period doubling, and Thue-Morse potentials.

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arXiv2014

Spectral Homogeneity of Discrete One-Dimensional Limit-Periodic Operators

We prove that a dense subset of limit periodic operators have spectra which are homogeneous Cantor sets in the sense of Carleson. Moreover, by using work of Egorova, our examples have purely absolutely continuous spectrum. The construction is robust enough to extend the results to arbitrary p-adic hulls by using the dynamical formalism proposed by Avila. The approach uses Floquet theory to break up the spectra of periodic approximants in a carefully controlled manner to produce Cantor spectrum and to establish the lower bounds needed to prove homogeneity.

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arXiv2014

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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arXiv2012

Continuum Schrödinger Operators Associated With Aperiodic Subshifts

We study Schrödinger operators on the real line whose potentials are generated by an underlying ergodic subshift over a finite alphabet and a rule that replaces symbols by compactly supported potential pieces. We first develop the standard theory that shows that the spectrum and the spectral type are almost surely constant, and that identifies the almost sure absolutely continuous spectrum with the essential closure of the set of energies with vanishing Lyapunov exponent. Using results of Damanik-Lenz and Klassert-Lenz-Stollmann, we also show that the spectrum is a Cantor set of zero Lebesgue measure if the subhift satisfies the Boshernitzan condition and the potentials are aperiodic and irreducible. We then study the case of the Fibonacci subshift in detail and prove results for the local Hausdorff dimension of the spectrum at a given energy in terms of the value of the associated Fricke-Vogt invariant. These results are elucidated for some simple choices of the local potential pieces, such as piecewise constant ones and local point interactions. In the latter special case, our results explain the occurrence of so-called pseudo bands, which have been pointed out in the physics literature.

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