arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Marcel Schmidt.
In this expository paper we answer two fundamental questions concerning discrete magnetic Schrödinger operator associated with weighted graphs. We discuss when formal expressions of such operators give rise to self-adjoint operators, i.e., when they have self-adjoint restrictions. If such self-adjoint restrictions exist, we explore when they are unique.
We study pairs of Dirichlet forms related by an intertwining order isomorphisms between the associated $L^2$-spaces. We consider the measurable, the topological and the geometric setting respectively. In the measurable setting, we deal with arbitrary (irreducible) Dirichlet forms and show that any intertwining order isomorphism is necessarily unitary (up to a constant). In the topological setting we deal with quasi-regular forms and show that any intertwining order isomorphism induces a quasi-homeomorphism between the underlying spaces. In the geometric setting we deal with both regular Dirichlet forms as well as resistance forms and essentially show that the geometry defined by these forms is preserved by intertwining order isomorphisms. In particular, we prove in the strongly local regular case that intertwining order isomorphisms induce isometries with respect to the intrinsic metrics between the underlying spaces under fairly mild assumptions. This applies to a wide variety of metric measure spaces including $\mathrm{RCD}(K,N)$-spaces, complete weighted Riemannian manifolds and complete quantum graphs. In the non-local regular case our results cover in particular graphs as well as fractional Laplacians as arising in the treatment of $α$-stable Lévy processes. For resistance forms we show that intertwining order isomorphisms are isometries with respect to the resistance metrics. Our results can can be understood as saying that diffusion always determines the Hilbert space, and -- under natural compatibility assumptions -- the topology and the geometry respectively. As special instances they cover earlier results for manifolds and graphs.
We put forward the concept of measure graphs. These are (possibly uncountable) graphs equipped with an action of a groupoid and a measure invariant under this action. Examples include finite graphs, periodic graphs, graphings and percolation graphs. Making use of Connes' non-commutative integration theory we construct a Zeta function and present a determinant formula for it. We further introduce a notion of weak convergence of measure graphs and show that our construction is compatible with it. The approximation of the Ihara Zeta function via the normalized version on finite graphs in the sense of Benjamini-Schramm follows as a special case. Our framework not only unifies corresponding earlier results occurring in the literature. It likewise provides extensions to rich new classes of objects such as percolation graphs.
In this paper we give an algebraic construction of the (active) reflected Dirich- let form. We prove that it is the maximal Silverstein extension whenever the given form does not possess a killing part and we prove that Dirichlet forms need not have a maximal Silverstein extension if a killing is present. For regular Dirichlet forms we provide an alternative construction of the reflected process on a compactification (minus one point) of the underlying space.
We describe the set of all Dirichlet forms associated to a given infinite graph in terms of Dirichlet forms on its Royden boundary. Our approach is purely analytical and uses form methods.
We study domination of quadratic forms in the abstract setting of ordered Hilbert spaces. Our main result gives a characterization in terms of the associated forms. This generalizes and unifies various earlier works. Along the way we present several examples.
In this thesis we study energy forms. These are quadratic forms on the space of real-valued measurable $m$-a.e. determined functions $$E:L^0(m) \to [0,\infty],$$ which assign to a measurable function $f$ its energy $E(f)$. Their two defining characteristics are a contraction property and some form of continuity. The contraction property demands that for each normal contraction $C:\mathbb R \to \mathbb R$ the energy of a function $f$ satisfies $$E(C \circ f) \leq E(f).$$ This is an abstract formulation of the postulate that cutting off fluctuations of a function (which is thought to describe some physical quantity) decreases its energy. The continuity assumption that we impose on energy forms is lower semicontinuity with respect to local convergence in measure. We develop the basic theory of energy forms and then investigate their extensions and global properties.
We provide an introduction to Dirichlet forms on discrete spaces and study their global properties such as recurrence, stochastic completeness and regularity of the Neumann form. In this setting we compare the notion of a recurrent Dirichlet form and a recurrent discrete time Markov chain of a given graph. We prove several known and several new characterizations of recurrence by using functional analytic Dirichlet form methods only. Finally, we compare all the mentioned global properties and discuss their relation to spectral theory.
We demonstrate the controlled preparation of heteroepitaxial diamond nano- and microstructures on silicon wafer based iridium films as hosts for single color centers. Our approach uses electron beam lithography followed by reactive ion etching to pattern the carbon layer formed by bias enhanced nucleation on the iridium surface. In the subsequent chemical vapor deposition process, the patterned areas evolve into regular arrays of (001) oriented diamond nano-islands with diameters of <500nm and a height of approx. 60 nm. In the islands, we identify single SiV color centers with narrow zero phonon lines down to 1 nm at room temperature.
We present a simple observation showing that the heat kernel on a locally finite graph behaves for short times $t$ roughly like $t^d$, where $d$ is the combinatorial distance. This is very different from the classical Varadhan type behavior on manifolds. Moreover, this also gives that short time behavior and global behavior of the heat kernel are governed by two different metrics whenever the degree of the graph is not uniformly bounded.
In this paper we prove a Feynman-Kac-Itô formula for magnetic Schrödinger operators on arbitrary weighted graphs. To do so, we have to provide a natural and general framework both on the operator theoretic and the probabilistic side of the equation. On the operator side we identify a very general class of potentials that allows the definition of magnetic Schrödinger operators. On the probabilistic side, we introduce an appropriate notion of stochastic line integrals with respect to magnetic potentials. Apart from linking the world of discrete magnetic operators with the probabilistic world through the Feynman-Kac-Itô formula, the insights from this paper gained on both sides should be of an independent interest. As applications of the Feynman-Kac-Itô formula, we prove a Kato inequality, a Golden-Thompson inequality and an explicit representation of the quadratic form domains corresponding to a large class of potentials.
We study global properties of Dirichlet forms such as uniqueness of the Dirichlet extension, stochastic completeness and recurrence. We characterize these properties by means of vanishing of a boundary term in Green's formula for functions from suitable function spaces and suitable operators arising from extensions of the underlying form. We first present results in the framework of general Dirichlet forms on $σ$-finite measure spaces. For regular Dirichlet forms our results can be strengthened as all operators from the previous considerations turn out to be restrictions of a single operator. Finally, the results are applied to graphs, weighted manifolds, and metric graphs, where the operators under investigation can be determined rather explicitly.
We study a special class of graphs with a strong transience feature called uniform transience. We characterize uniform transience via a Feller-type property and via validity of an isoperimetric inequality. We then give a further characterization via equality of the Royden boundary and the harmonic boundary and show that the Dirichlet problem has a unique solution for such graphs. The Markov semigroups and resolvents (with Dirichlet boundary conditions) on these graphs are shown to be ultracontractive. Moreover, if the underlying measure is finite, the semigroups and resolvents are trace class and their generators have $\ell^p$ independent pure point spectra (for $1 \leq p \leq \infty$). Examples of uniformly transient graphs include Cayley graphs of hyperbolic groups as well as trees and Euclidean lattices of dimension at least three. As a surprising consequence, the Royden compactification of such lattices turns out to be the one-point compacitifcation and the Laplacians of such lattices have pure point spectrum if the underlying measure is chosen to be finite.
We consider diffusion on discrete measure spaces as encoded by Markovian semigroups arising from weighted graphs. We study whether the graph is uniquely determined if the diffusion is given up to order isomorphism. If the graph is recurrent then the complete graph structure and the measure space are determined (up to an overall scaling). As shown by counterexamples this result is optimal. Without the recurrence assumption, the graph still turns out to be determined in the case of normalized diffusion on graphs with standard weights and in the case of arbitrary graphs over spaces in which each point has the same mass. These investigations provide discrete counterparts to studies of diffusion on Euclidean domains and manifolds initiated by Arendt and continued by Arendt/Biegert/ter Elst and Arendt/ter Elst. A crucial step in our considerations shows that order isomorphisms are actually unitary maps (up to a scaling) in our context.