Absolutely continuous spectrum of Stark operators (Q1426909)

Sufficient conditions on the potential \(q\) are given for the operator \(-d^2/dx^2 -x + q(x)\) to have absolutely continuous spectrum on the entire real line. Examples are given to show that, within reasonable classes of potentials, the sufficient conditions are sharp. If \(q\) is uniformly locally Hölder continuous with exponent \(>1/2\), and subject to a linear growth bound, or if \(q(x^2)\in L^p\) for some \(1\leq p<2\), then for every set of positive Lebesgue measure, the absolutely continuous part of the spectral measure will be positive. Under stricter growth and smoothness conditions, the spectrum is purely absolutely continuous: one of the theorems is for growth \(O(x^\alpha)\) with \(\alpha<1\) and Dini continuous first derivative. Key tool is a study of subordinate solutions to the eigenvalue problem, relying on a criterion by \textit{D. J Gilbert } [Proc. R. Soc. Edinb., Sect. A 112, 213--229 (1989; Zbl 0678.34024)].