Spectral theory of non-commutative harmonic oscillators: an introduction (Q974682)

The book under review presents the spectral theory of elliptic non-commutative harmonic oscillators, offering also useful information for more general elliptic differential systems. It points out relevant connections with differential geometry and mathematical physics. The book consists of 12 chapters, one appendix and a complete list of references on the subject. Chapter 1 describes the general context of the topics discussed in the book emphasizing that the monograph is intended as a ``pseudo-differential'' introduction. Chapter 2 reviews the spectral properties of the harmonic oscillator, which is the basic scalar model for the whole theory. Chapter 3 sets forth the Weyl-Hörmander pseudo-differential calculus. Chapter 4 focuses on counting the eigenvalues of an operator with discrete spectrum. Chapter 5 is devoted to the heat-semigroup and functional calculus. Chapter 6 studies the asymptotic behavior of large eigenvalues. Chapter 7 investigates the spectral zeta function. Chapter 8 provides further properties of the eigenvalues of elliptic non-commutative harmonic oscillators. Chapter 9 introduces some tools from semiclassical calculus that are used in the subsequent chapters to obtain location properties of large eigenvalues. Chapter 10 builds a reduction procedure for a self-adjoint unbounded operator to study its large eigenvalues. Chapter 11 explores interesting relationship between energy-levels, dynamics and Maslov index. Chapter 12 represents the most elaborated part of the book where the methods and techniques developed in the previous chapters are fully employed to reveal the deep connection between the spectrum of a self-adjoint elliptic \(2\times 2\) positive elliptic non-commutative harmonic oscillator and the bicharacteristic curves of the principal symbol. The book addresses important and difficult topics in mathematics. The results are presented in a rigorous, illuminating and elegant way.