Low energy properties of the random displacement model (Q1017698)

This paper considers the so-called random displacement model, i.e. the random Schrödinger operator on \(L^2(\mathbb{R}^d)\) given by \(H_\omega=-\Delta+V_\omega\), where the random potential is \(V_\omega(x)=\sum_{i\in Z^d}q(x-i-\omega_i)\), the random variables \(\omega_i\) being i.i.d. with support \([-d_{\max},d_{\max}]^d\). The potential \(q(.)\) is at this stage rather arbitrary, except that it is required to have some reflection symmetries and that the relation between its support and \(d_{\max}\) is such that the various terms in \(V_\omega(.)\) do not overlap spatially. The first result proven in this paper concerns the ground state energy. Suppose for instance that \(q(.)\) has a sign. Then, it is known from the authors' earlier paper [Commun. Math. Phys. 283, No. 2, 397--415 (2008; Zbl 1157.81009)] that \(E_0:=\inf_\omega\min \sigma(H_\omega)\) coincides with \(\min\sigma(H_{\omega^{\min}})\) where \(\omega^{\min}\) is the periodic configuration \((\omega^{\min})_i=((-1)^{i_1}d_{\max},\ldots,(-1)^{i_d}d_{\max})\). In the Theorems 2.3, 2.4 of the present paper, it is proven that, in dimension \(d\geq2\), \(\omega^{\min}\) is the unique periodic configuration to realize such equality, while if \(d=1\) there exists an infinite number of other periodic \(\omega\) configurations for which the equality holds. This has a striking consequence on the behavior of the density of states near the bottom of the spectrum (for \(d=1\)), see Theorems 4.1 and 4.3. For instance, consider the Bernoulli case where the \(\omega_i\) are symmetric, i.i.d. and take values \(\pm d_{\max}\). Then, the authors prove that if \(d=1\) the integrated density of states satisfies \(N(E)\geq C/(\log (E-E_0))^2\), to be compared with the usual Lifshitz tail behavior \(N(E)\sim \exp(-c |E-E_0|^{-d/2})\). If \(d\geq 2\), due to the uniqueness of the periodic configuration \(\omega^{\min}\) wich realizes \(\inf_\omega\min \sigma(H_\omega)=\min\sigma(H_{\omega^{\min}})\), one expects the Lifshitz tail behavior to be recovered.