Pseudo-modes for Schrödinger operators with complex potentials (Q1731878)

The work of E. B. Davies and L. N. Trefethen on pseudo-spectra and pseudo-modes (= pseudo-eigenvalues) has invigorated interest in the spectral theory of non-selfadjoint ordinary differential operators over the last decade. The present paper contributes significantly to this theory, considering $L^2$-realisations of \[H_V:=-(d/dx)^2+V(x),\] where $V$ is a complex-valued function the modulus of which is locally of integrable square either on the whole line or on $(0,\infty)$. The authors' aim is to construct families of pseudo-modes $f_\lambda$ such that \[\Vert(H_V-\lambda) f_\lambda\Vert= o(1)\Vert f_\lambda\Vert\tag{+}\] as $\lambda\to\infty$ in a complex region $\Omega$, addressing the following questions: \begin{itemize}\item[a)] For which potentials $V$ does there exist a nontrivial region $\Omega$, where $(+)$ holds, and what can be said about the shape of $\Omega$?\item[b)] How large can $\text{Re\,}V$ be in comparison with $\text{Im\,}V$, so that $(+)$ holds?\item[c)] To what extent is the polynomial-like character of the potentials $V$ that have been studied so far important, and what role does the regularity of $V$ play?\end{itemize} Their answers are summarised in five theorems and are illustrated by a variety of examples, but unfortunately the technicalities are too involved to present them in a review. Here it must suffice to say that the desired pseudo-modes are obtained by means of an intricate and substantial variation of the classical Liouville-Green method (or, in the parlance of physics, the WKB approximation). The strategy is explained in \S2.3 and the full details are given in a six-page-appendix.