arXiv subjects

Thomas Ourmières-Bonafos

Publications and source records attributed to Thomas Ourmières-Bonafos.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Geometric spectral properties of electromagnetic waveguides

Consider a reference homogeneous and isotropic electromagnetic waveguide with a simply connected cross-section embedded in a perfect conductor. In this setting, when the waveguide is straight, the spectrum of the associated self-adjoint Maxwell operator with a constant twist (which may be zero) lies on the real line and is symmetric with respect to zero and exhibits a spectral gap around the origin. Moreover, the spectrum is purely essential, and contains 0 which is an eigenvalue of infinite multiplicity. In this work, we present new results on the effects of geometric deformations, specifically bending and twisting, on the spectrum of the Maxwell operator. More precisely, we provide, on the one hand, sufficient conditions on the asymptotic behavior of curvature and twist that ensure the preservation of the essential spectrum of the reference waveguide. Our approach relies on a Birman-Schwinger-type principle, which may be of independent interest and applicable in other contexts. On the other hand, we give sufficient conditions (involving in particular the geometrical shape of the cross-section of the waveguide) so that the geometrical deformation creates discrete spectrum (namely isolated eigenvalues of finite multiplicity) within the gap of the essential spectrum. In addition, we give some results on the localization of these discrete eigenvalues. The sufficient condition involving the cross-section is then studied both analytically and numerically. Finally, we examine its stability under shape deformations of the cross-section, focusing in particular on the case of a waveguide with a rectangular cross-section.

math.AP↗

arXiv2024

Dirac bag model on thin domains: a microlocal viewpoint

The Dirac operator is considered on a bidimensional domain whose boundary carries the infinite mass boundary condition. The analysis is focused on the existence of discrete spectrum and on its asymptotic description in the thin width limit. We revisit a recent result by using an alternative view point inspired by microlocal analysis.

math-ph↗

arXiv2023

Spectral asymptotics of the Dirac operator in a thin shell

We investigate the spectrum of the Dirac operator with infinite mass boundary conditions posed in a tubular neighborhood of a smooth compact hypersurface in $\mathbb{R}^n$ without boundary. We prove that when the tubular neighborhood shrinks to the hypersurface, the asymptotic behavior of the eigenvalues is driven by a Schrödinger operator involving electric and Yang-Mills potentials, both of geometric nature.

math.SP↗

arXiv2022

Spectral asymptotics for two-dimensional Dirac operators in thin waveguides

We consider the two-dimensional Dirac operator with infinite mass boundary conditions posed in a tubular neighborhood of a $C^4$-planar curve. Under generic assumptions on its curvature $κ$, we prove that in the thin-width regime the splitting of the eigenvalues is driven by the one dimensional Schrödinger operator on $L^2(\mathbb R)$ \[ \mathcal{L}_e := -\frac{d^2}{ds^2} - \frac{κ^2}{π^2} \] with a geometrically induced potential. The eigenvalues are shown to be at distance of order $\varepsilon$ from the essential spectrum, where $2\varepsilon$ is the width of the waveguide. This is in contrast with the non-relativistic counterpart of this model, for which they are known to be at a finite distance.

math.SP↗

arXiv2020

A variational formulation for Dirac operators in bounded domains. Applications to spectral geometric inequalities

We investigate spectral features of the Dirac operator with infinite mass boundary conditions in a smooth bounded domain of $\mathbb{R}^2$. Motivated by spectral geometric inequalities, we prove a non-linear variational formulation to characterize its principal eigenvalue. This characterization turns out to be very robust and allows for a simple proof of a Szegö type inequality as well as a new reformulation of a Faber-Krahn type inequality for this operator. The paper is complemented with strong numerical evidences supporting the existence of a Faber-Krahn type inequality.

math.SP↗

arXiv2020

Effective operators for Robin eigenvalues in domains with corners

We study the eigenvalues of the Laplacian with a strong attractive Robin boundary condition in curvilinear polygons. It was known from previous works that the asymptotics of several first eigenvalues is essentially determined by the corner openings, while only rough estimates were available for the next eigenvalues. Under some geometric assumptions, we go beyond the critical eigenvalue number and give a precise asymptotics of any individual eigenvalue by establishing a link with an effective Schrödinger-type operator on the boundary of the domain with boundary conditions at the corners.

math.SP↗

arXiv2019

Two-dimensional Dirac operators with singular interactions supported on closed curves

We study the two-dimensional Dirac operator with an arbitrary combination of electrostatic and Lorentz scalar $δ$-interactions of constant strengths supported on a smooth closed curve. For any combination of the coupling constants a rigorous description of the self-adjoint realizations of the operators is given and the qualitative spectral properties are described. The analysis covers also all so-called critical combinations of coupling constants, for which there is a loss of regularity in the operator domain. In this case, if the mass is non-zero, the resulting operator has an additional point in the essential spectrum, and the position of this point inside the central gap can be made arbitrary by a suitable choice of the coupling constants. The analysis is based on a combination of the extension theory of symmetric operators with a detailed study of boundary integral operators viewed as periodic pseudodifferential operators.

math.AP↗

arXiv2019

A sharp upper bound on the spectral gap for graphene quantum dots

The main result of this paper is a sharp upper bound on the first positive eigenvalue of Dirac operators in two dimensional simply connected $C^3$-domains with infinite mass boundary conditions. This bound is given in terms of a conformal variation, explicit geometric quantities and of the first eigenvalue for the disk. Its proof relies on the min-max principle applied to the squares of these Dirac operators. A suitable test function is constructed by means of a conformal map. This general upper bound involves the norm of the derivative of the underlying conformal map in the Hardy space $\mathcal{H}^2(\mathbb{D})$. Then, we apply known estimates of this norm for convex and for nearly circular, star-shaped domains in order to get explicit geometric upper bounds on the eigenvalue. These bounds can be re-interpreted as reverse Faber-Krahn-type inequalities under adequate geometric constraints.

math.SP↗

arXiv2019

Dirac operators and shell interactions: a survey

In this survey we gather recent results on Dirac operators coupled with $δ$-shell interactions. We start by discussing recent advances regarding the question of self-adjointness for these operators. Afterward we switch to an approximation question: can these operators be recovered as limits of Dirac operators coupled with squeezing potentials ? We also discuss spectral features of these models. Namely, we recall the main spectral consequences of a resolvent formula and conclude the survey by commenting a result of asymptotic nature for the eigenvalues in the gap of a Dirac operator coupled with a Lorentz-scalar interaction.

math-ph↗

arXiv2018

Dirac operators on hypersurfaces as large mass limits

We show that the eigenvalues of the intrinsic Dirac operator on the boundary of a Euclidean domain can be obtained as the limits of eigenvalues of Euclidean Dirac operators, either in the domain with a MIT-bag type boundary condition or in the whole space, with a suitably chosen zero order mass term.

math-ph↗

arXiv2018

Dirichlet spectrum of the Fichera layer

We investigate the spectrum of the three-dimensional Dirichlet Laplacian in a prototypal infinite polyhedral layer, that is formed by three perpendicular quarter-plane walls of constant width joining each other. Alternatively, this domain can be viewed as an octant from which another "parallel" octant is removed. It contains six edges (three convex and three non-convex) and two corners (one convex and one non-convex). It is a canonical example of non-smooth conical layer. We name it after Fichera because near its non-convex corner, it coincides with the famous Fichera cube that illustrates the interaction between edge and corner singularities. This domain could also be called an octant layer. We show that the essential spectrum of the Laplacian on such a domain is a half-line and we characterize its minimum as the first eigenvalue of the two-dimensional Laplacian on a broken guide. By a Born-Oppenheimer type strategy, we also prove that its discrete spectrum is finite and that a lower bound is given by the ground state of a special Sturm-Liouville operator. By finite element computations taking singularities into account, we exhibit exactly one eigenvalue under the essential spectrum threshold leaving a relative gap of 3%. We extend these results to a variant of the Fichera layer with rounded edges (for which we find a very small relative gap of 0.5%), and to a three-dimensional cross where the three walls are full thickened planes.

math.SP↗

arXiv2018

Self-Adjointness of Dirac Operators with Infinite Mass Boundary Conditions in Sectors

This paper deals with the study of the two-dimensional Dirac operatorwith infinite mass boundary condition in a sector. We investigate the question ofself-adjointness depending on the aperture of the sector: when the sector is convexit is self-adjoint on a usual Sobolev space whereas when the sector is non-convexit has a family of self-adjoint extensions parametrized by a complex number of theunit circle. As a byproduct of this analysis we are able to give self-adjointnessresults on polygones. We also discuss the question of distinguished self-adjointextensions and study basic spectral properties of the operator in the sector.

math-ph↗

arXiv2017

Dirac operators with Lorentz scalar shell interactions

This paper deals with the massive three-dimensional Dirac operator coupled with a Lorentz scalar shell interaction supported on a compact smooth surface. The rigorous definition of the operator involves suitable transmission conditions along the surface. After showing the self-adjointness of the resulting operator we switch to the investigation of its spectral properties, in particular, to the existence and non-existence of eigenvalues. In the case of an attractive coupling, we study the eigenvalue asymptotics as the mass becomes large and show that the behavior of the individual eigenvalues and their total number are governed by an effective Schrödinger operator on the boundary with an external Yang-Mills potential and a curvature-induced potential.

math.SP↗

arXiv2017

Spectral asymptotics for $δ$-interactions on sharp cones

We investigate the spectrum of three-dimensional Schrödinger operators with $δ$-interactions of constant strength supported on circular cones. As shown in earlier works, such operators have infinitely many eigenvalues below the threshold of the essential spectrum. We focus on spectral properties for sharp cones, that is when the cone aperture goes to zero, and we describe the asymptotic behavior of the eigenvalues and of the eigenvalue counting function. A part of the results are given in terms of numerical constants appearing as solutions of transcendental equations involving modified Bessel functions.

math.SP↗

arXiv2016

A strategy for self-adjointness of Dirac operators: Applications to the MIT bag model and delta-shell interactions

We develop an approach to prove self-adjointness of Dirac operators with boundary or transmission conditions at a $\mathcal{C}^2$-compact surface without boundary. To do so we are lead to study the layer potential induced by the Dirac system as well as to define traces in a weak sense for functions in the appropriate Sobolev space. Finally, we introduce Calderón projectors associated with the problem and illustrate the method in two special cases: the well-known MIT bag model and an electrostatic $δ$-shell interaction.

math-ph↗

arXiv2016

Discrete spectrum of interactions concentrated near conical surfaces

We study the spectrum of two kinds of operators involving a conical geometry: the Dirichlet Laplacian in conical layers and Schrödinger operators with attractive $δ$-interactions supported by infinite cones. Under the assumption that the cones have smooth cross-sections, we prove that such operators have infinitely many eigenvalues accumulating below the threshold of the essential spectrum and we express the accumulation rate in terms of the eigenvalues of an auxiliary one-dimensional operator with a curvature-induced potential.

math.SP↗

arXiv2016

Spectral transitions for Aharonov-Bohm Laplacians on conical layers

We consider the Laplace operator in a tubular neighbourhood of a conical surface of revolution, subject to an Aharonov-Bohm magnetic field supported on the axis of symmetry and Dirichlet boundary conditions on the boundary of the domain. We show that there exists a critical total magnetic flux depending on the aperture of the conical surface for which the system undergoes an abrupt spectral transition from infinitely many eigenvalues below the essential spectrum to an empty discrete spectrum. For the critical flux we establish a Hardy-type inequality. In the regime with infinite discrete spectrum we obtain sharp spectral asymptotics with refined estimate of the remainder and investigate the dependence of the eigenvalues on the aperture of the surface and the flux of the magnetic field.

math.SP↗

arXiv2015

On the Bound States of Schrödinger Operators with $δ$-interactions on Conical Surfaces

In dimension greater than or equal to three, we investigate the spectrum of a Schr{ö}dinger operator with a $δ$-interaction supported on a cone whose cross section is the sphere of co-dimension two. After decomposing into fibers, we prove that there is discrete spectrum only in dimension three and that it is generated by the axisymmetric fiber. We get that these eigenvalues are non-decreasing functions of the aperture of the cone and we exhibit the precise logarithmic accumulation of the discrete spectrum below the threshold of the essential spectrum.

math.SP↗