Spectral estimates for periodic Jacobi matrices (Q1871780)

The paper deals with spectral estimates for the \(q\)-periodic Jacobi matrix \[ (H\psi)_{n}=a_{n-1}\psi_{n-1}+b_{n}\psi_{n}+a_{n+1}\psi_{n+1}\tag \(*\) \] on \(l^{2}(\mathbb{Z})\), where \(b_{n+q}=b_{n}\in \mathbb{R}\), \(a_{n+q}=a_{n}>0\), and \(q>1\) is the smallest period. The spectrum of \(H\) consists of exactly \(q\) bands \(\sigma_{m}=[\lambda^{+}_{m-1},\lambda^{-}_{m}]\) \((m=1,2,\ldots,q)\) separated by gaps \(\gamma_{m}=(\lambda^{-}_{m},\lambda^{+}_{m})\) \((m=1,2,\ldots,q-1)\). Put \(c=(\lambda^{-}_{q}-\lambda^{+}_{0})/2\) and \(A=(a_{1}a_{2}\cdots a_{q})^{1/q}\). Assume that \(H\) is normalized such that \(-\lambda^{+}_{0}=\lambda^{-}_{q}\). Let \(L\) be the \(q\times q\) representation matrix of \((*)\) subject to the Floquet condition \(\psi_{n+q}=-i\psi_{n}\). The authors give the following bounds for the spectral radius \(c\): \[ c>2A, \] \[ c^{2}\left(\frac{1}{2}+\ln \frac{c}{2A}\right)>\frac{1}{q}\operatorname {Tr}L^{2}. \] Let \[ h^{+}=\max_{\lambda\in\cup\gamma_{n}}\frac{1}{q}\operatorname {arccosh}|A^{-q}\det (\lambda-L)/2|, \] \[ g_{n}=(\operatorname {arccos}\lambda_{n}^{-}/c, \operatorname {arccos}\lambda_{n}^{+}/c)\quad(n=1,2,\ldots,q-1). \] The authors prove the following bounds for gaps: \[ \sum^{q-1}_{n=1}|g_{n}|>\pi\frac{\ln (c/2A)}{h_{+}}>\pi\frac{\ln (c/2A)}{\ln (2c/A)}, \] \[ \sum^{q-1}_{n=1}\int_{g_{n}}\cos^{2}x dx> \frac{\pi}{h_{+}}\left(\frac{\ln (c/2A)}{2}+\frac{1}{4}-\frac{1}{2qc^{2}} \operatorname {Tr}L^{2}\right), \] \[ \frac{\ln (c/2A)}{\max\{ 1,qh_{+}/\pi\}}<\sum^{q-1}_{n=1}|g_{n}|^{2}<8\ln (c/2A), \] where \(h_{+}\) satisfies \(0<h_{+}<\ln (\frac{c}{A}+|\frac{1}{Aq}\sum^{q}_{j=1}b_{j}|)<\ln \frac{2c}{A}\). The results are based on the analysis of the quasimomentum. Let \(D(\lambda)\) be the discriminant of the equation \(H\psi=\lambda\psi\) and let \(\widetilde{k}(\lambda)=q^{-1}\text{arccos}(D(\lambda)/2)\), where the branch is chosen so that \(\text{arccos}(0)=-\pi/2\). The quasimomentum \(k(z):=\widetilde{k}(-c\cos z)+\pi\) is a conformal map from \(\mathbb{C}^{0}_{+}\backslash\cup g_{n}\) onto \(\mathbb{C}^{0}_{+}\backslash\cup c_{n}\), where \(\mathbb{C}^{0}_{+}=\{x+iy\mid 0\leq x\leq \pi\), \(y\geq 0\}\) and \(c_{n}\) is a vertical slit of the form \(c_{n}=\{\frac{n\pi}{q}+s\mid 0< s< h_{n}\}\). Using the power series expansion of \(k(z)\) as \(k\to i\infty\), the authors prove trace formulas such as \[ \frac{1}{\pi}\int^{\pi}_{0} \operatorname {Im} k(x) dx=\ln\frac{c}{2A}, \] and they utilize these formulas to prove their main results.