Determinants of truncated Wiener-Hopf operators with Hilbert-Schmidt kernels and piecewise continuous symbols (Q1337829)

Asymptotic formulas for Wiener-Hopf determinants have been studied by many mathematicians. Let \(\sigma\in L^ \infty(\mathbb{R})\) with \(\sigma- 1\in L^ 2(\mathbb{R})\). Denote by \(k= (\sigma- 1)^ \wedge\) the inverse Fourier transform and define the Wiener-Hopf operator \(W(\sigma)\) acting on \(L^ 2(\mathbb{R})\) by the rule \[ (W(\sigma)f)(x)= f(x)+ \int^ \infty_ 0 k(x- t) f(t) dt,\quad x> 0. \] The truncation \(W_ t(\sigma)\) of \(W(\sigma)\) is defined on \(L^ 2(0, \tau)\) \((\tau> 0)\) by \[ (W_ \tau(\sigma) f)(x)= f(x)+ \int^ \tau_ 0 k(x- t) f(t) dt,\quad 0< x< \tau. \] If additionally \(\sigma- 1\) is in \(L^ 1(\mathbb{R})\) then \(W_ \tau\) is of the form \(I\) plus trace class operator. Therefore the determinant \[ \text{det }W_ \tau(\sigma)= \prod_ j (1+ \lambda_ j) \] is well-defined, where \(\lambda_ 1,\lambda_ 2,\dots\) are the eigenvalues of \(W_ \tau(\sigma)- I\) (counted up to algebraic multiplicity). If \(\sigma- 1\) is only in \(L^ 2(\mathbb{R})\), then the so-called second regularized determinant \(\text{det}_ 2 W_ \tau(\sigma)\) is given by \[ \text{det}_ 2 W_ \tau(\sigma)= \prod_ j (1+ \lambda_ j) e^{- \lambda j}. \] The paper deals with an asymptotic formula for \(\text{det}_ 2 W_ \tau(\sigma)\) in the case \(\sigma\) is only piecewise continuous, \(\sigma''\) decreases sufficiently rapidly and \(W(\sigma)\) is invertible. This formula confirms the conjecture due to one of the authors (Böttcher).