On the spectrum of magnetic Dirac operators with Coulomb-type perturbations (Q2456997)

In this paper the authors carry out the spectral analysis of singular matrix-valued perturbations of 3-dimensional Dirac operators with variable magnetic field of constant direction. Without any loss of generality we may assume that the magnetic field has the form \(B(x_{1},x_{2},x_{3})=(0,0,B(x_{1},x_{2}))\). The unperturbed system is described in the Hilbert space \({\text{L}}^{2}(\mathbb R^{3};\mathbb C^{4})\) by the Dirac operator \[ H_{0}:=\alpha_{1}\Pi_{1}+\alpha_{2}\Pi_{2}+\alpha_{3}P_{3}+\beta m, \] where \(\beta\equiv\alpha_{0}\), \(\alpha_{1}\), \(\alpha_{2}\), \(\alpha_{3}\) are the usual Dirac-Pauli matrices, \(m\) is the strictly positive mass of the particle, and \(\Pi_{j}:=-i\partial_{j}-a_{j}\) are the generators of the magnetic translations with a vector potential \[ a(x_{1},x_{2},x_{3})=(a_{1}(x_{1},x_{2}),a_{2}(x_{1},x_{2}),0), \] which satisfies \(B=\partial_{1}a_{2}-\partial_{2}a_{1}\). Since \(a_{3}=0\), we write \(P_{3}:=-i\partial_{3}\) instead of \(\Pi_{3}\). In order to state the main result, we introduce some notations. Let \(H^{0}=\sigma_{1}\Pi_{1}+\sigma_{2}\Pi_{2}+\sigma_{3}m\) in \({\text{L}}^{2}(\mathbb R^{2};\mathbb C^{2})\), where \(\sigma_{j}\) are the Pauli matrices. Let \(\sigma^{0}_{\text{sym}}\) stand for the union of the spectra of \(H^{0}\) and \(-H^{0}\). We denote by \({\mathcal B}_{\text{h}}(\mathbb C^{4})\) the set of \(4\times4\) Hermitian matrices. Let \(\|\cdot\|\) stand for the norm of the Hilbert space \({\mathcal H}:={\text{L}}^{2}(\mathbb R^{3};\mathbb C^{4})\) as well as for the norm of \({\mathcal B}({\mathcal H})\), which is the set of bounded linear operators on \({\mathcal H}\), \(\vartheta\) is an arbitrary \(C^{\infty}([0,\infty))\)-function such that \(\vartheta=0\) near \(0\) and \(\vartheta=1\) near infinity. Let \(Q_{j}\) be the multiplication operator on the coordinate \(x_{j}\) in \({\mathcal H}\), and \(Q:=(Q_{1},Q_{2},Q_{3})\). The expression \(\langle\cdot\rangle\) corresponds to \(\sqrt{1+(\cdot)^{2}}\). The limiting absorption principle for the perturbed Dirac operator is going to be expressed in terms of the Banach space \({\mathcal K}:=({\mathcal D}(\langle Q_{3} \rangle),{\mathcal H})_{1/2,1}\) defined by real interpolation. The perturbation \(V\) splits into two parts: a regular matrix-valued function and a singular matrix-valued function with compact support. The following definitions concern the former part. Definition. Let \(V\) be a multiplication operator associated with an element of \({\text{L}}^{\infty}(\mathbb R^{3};{\mathcal B}_{\text{h}}(\mathbb C^{4}))\). Then {\parindent=6mm \begin{itemize}\item[(a)] \(V\) is small at infinity if \(\lim_{r\to\infty}\|\vartheta(|Q|/r)V\|=0\); \item[(b)] \(V\) is short-range if \(\int^{\infty}_{1}\|\vartheta(|Q_{3}|/r)V\|\,dr<\infty\). \item[(c)] Assume that \(V\) is continuously differentiable with respect to \(x_{3}\) and that the map \(x\mapsto \langle x_{3}\rangle(\partial_{3}V)(x)\) belongs to \({\text{L}}^{\infty}(\mathbb R^{3};{\mathcal B}_{\text{h}}(\mathbb C^{4}))\), then \(V\) is long-range if \[ \int^{\infty}_{1}\|\vartheta(|Q_{3}|/r)\langle Q_{3}\rangle(\partial_{3}V)\|\frac{dr}{r}<\infty. \] \end{itemize}} The main result of this paper is stated as follows. Theorem. Assume that \(B\) belongs to \({\text{L}}^{\infty}_{\text{loc}}(\mathbb R^{2};\mathbb R)\) and that \(V(x)\) belongs to \({\mathcal B}_{\text{h}}(\mathbb C^{4})\) for all \(x\in\mathbb R^{3}\). Suppose that there exist \(\chi\in C^{\infty}_{0}(\mathbb R^{3};\mathbb R)\), a finite set \(\Gamma\subset\mathbb R^{3}\), and a positive number \(\nu<1\) such that: {\parindent=7mm \begin{itemize}\item[(i)] \(V_{\text{reg}}:=(1-\chi)V\) belongs to \({\text{L}}^{\infty}(\mathbb R^{3};{\mathcal B}_{\text{h}}(\mathbb C^{4}))\). \(V_{\text{reg}}\) is small at infinity and can be written as the sum of a short-range and a long-range potential; \item[(ii)] \(V_{\text{sing}}:=\chi V\) can be written as the sum of two matrix-valued Borel functions \(V_{\text{loc}}\in {\text{L}}^{3}_{\text{loc}}(\mathbb R^{3};{\mathcal B}_{\text{h}}(\mathbb C^{4}))\) and \(V_{\text{c}}\) with \[ \| V_{\text{c}}(x)\|_{{\mathcal B}_{\text{h}}(\mathbb C^{4})}\leq\sum_{a\in\Gamma}\frac{\nu}{|x-a|}\quad\text{for any }x\in\mathbb R^{3}. \] \end{itemize}} Then there exists a unique self-adjoint operator \(H\) in \({\mathcal H}\), formally equal to \(H_{0}+V\), with domain \({\mathcal D}(H)\subset {\mathcal H}^{1/2}_{\text{loc}}(\mathbb R^{3};\mathbb C^{4})\), such that: {\parindent=6mm \begin{itemize}\item[(a)] \(\sigma_{\text{ess}}(H)=\sigma_{\text{ess}}(H_{0});\) \item[(b)] the point spectrum of the operator \(H\) in \(\mathbb R\setminus\sigma^{0}_{\text{sym}}\) is composed of eigenvalues of finite multiplicity and with no accumulation point in \(\mathbb R\setminus\sigma^{0}_{\text{sym}}\); \item[(c)] the operator \(H\) has no singular continuous spectrum in \(\mathbb R\setminus\sigma^{0}_{\text{sym}}\); \item[(d)] the limits \(\lim_{\varepsilon\to 0+}\langle\psi,(H-\lambda\mp i\varepsilon)^{-1}\rangle\) exist for each \(\psi\in{\mathcal K}\), uniformly in \(\lambda\) on each compact subset of \(\mathbb R\setminus\{\sigma^{0}_{\text{sym}}\cup\sigma_{\text{pp}}(H)\}\). \end{itemize}} This extends the earlier result of the authors [J. Math. Phys. 45, No. 11, 4164--4173 (2004; Zbl 1064.81028)], in which two restrictions on the perturbations were imposed: the perturbation had to be bounded and the long-range part had to be of scalar-type. In the present paper both restrictions are removed, and the Coulomb potentials up to the physical nuclear charge \(Z<137\) are allowed.