On the Picard principle for \(\Delta + \mu \) (Q415498)

Let \(U \subset {\mathbb{R}^d}\) be an open (resp. open and bounded) set in case \(d \geq 3\) (resp. \(d = 2\)) and define the Green kernel \(G_U\) on \(U\) as the fundamental solution of the equation \(\Delta g = \delta_y\), \(y \in U\), where \(\Delta\) is the Laplacian. By a Kato measure the authors mean a Radon measure on \({\mathbb{R}^d} \backslash \{0\}\) such that for every relatively compact open set \(U \subset {\mathbb{R}^d} \backslash \{0\}\) the Green potential \(G^{}_U \mu ( y )\) is real and continuous. In the paper under review the authors fix, once and for all, \(U\) to be the truncated sphere \(U = \big\{x \in {\mathbb{R}^d}\mid 0< |x| < r\big\}\). By the Schrödinger equation in \(U\) they mean the equation \[ \Delta u + \mu = 0,\tag{1} \] and denote by \(\mathcal H^{\Delta+ \mu}_0 (U )\) the convex cone of the distribution solutions of (1) which are non-negative continuous functions on \(U\) tending to zero at the boundary of the sphere \(B = U \cup \{0\}\). As indicated in the contents, the aim of the paper is to study the nature of extremal rays in \(\mathcal H^{\Delta + \mu}_0 (U )\) (Section 3), to give a characterization of \(\mathcal H^{\Delta + \mu}_0 (U ) \neq \{0\}\) (Section 4), to establish sufficient conditions for the Picard principle for \(\Delta + \mu\) (Section 5), and to show that the verification of the Picard principle can be localized at the origin (Section 6). In the appendices some results on (sub)eigenfunctions of \(\Delta + \mu\) which are used in the discussion of the Picard principle are given. The main results of the paper are summarized in details in the introduction (Section 1); Section 2 is devoted to the investigation of some potential theoretic aspects of the operator \(\Delta + \mu\), which is of independent interest.