The limiting absorption principle at thresholds (Q1087430)

We study the spectral theory of the acoustic propagator for deformed stratified media, corresponding to the problem of deformed acoustical wave guides. We prove the limiting absorption principle for the deformed wave guide at the thresholds (cut off frequencies) where a new guided mode of the perfect wave guide begins to exist. This is quite a delicate technical problem because the (properly normalized) generalized eigenfunctions of the perfect wave guide are not smooth at thresholds. We also prove that the acoustic propagator has no positive eigenvalues embedded in the continuous spectrum.