Convergence of Dirichlet forms and associated Schrödinger operators (Q1096156)

Let \(\phi_ n\) be a sequence of functions in \(L^ 2_{loc}({\mathbb{R}}^ d)\) with \(\phi_ n>0\) a.e. Under certain conditions on \(\phi_ n\) the energy form \(\tilde {\mathcal E}^ n(u,u)=\int | \nabla u|^ 2\phi^ 2_ ndx\) acting in \(L^ 2({\mathbb{R}}^ d,\phi^ 2_ ndx)\) is closable. Its closure \({\mathcal E}^ n(u,u)\) is a Dirichlet form defining a positive self-adjoint energy operator -\({\mathcal L}^ n\) satisfying \({\mathcal E}^ n(u,u)=(-{\mathcal L}^ nu,u)\) for all \(u\in D({\mathcal L}^ n)\). Its associated Markov semigroup is \(P^ n_ t-e^{t{\mathcal L}^ n}\), \(t>0\). Its associated Hamiltonian is \(H_ n-\psi (-{\mathcal L}^ n)\phi_ n^{- 1}\) a self-adjoint operator in \(L^ 2({\mathbb{R}}^ d,dx)\) formally given modulo a constant by the Schrödinger operator \(-\Delta +\Delta \phi /\phi\). The associated semigroup \(T^ n_ t=\phi P^ n_ t\phi^{- 1}=e^{-tH_ n}\) also acts in \(L^ 2({\mathbb{R}}^ d,dx).\) Assume that \(\phi_ n\to \phi\) in \(L^ 2_{loc}\) and \(\phi >0\) a.e. With some additional assumptions it is proved that \(T^ n_ t\) converges strongly by subsequences to some positivity preserving semigroup \(T_ t\) in \(L^ 2\). Moreover, the generator \({\mathcal L}\) of the Markov semigroup \(P_ t=\phi^{-1}T_ t\phi =e^{t{\mathcal L}}\) is identified as \({\mathcal L}=\Delta +2\nabla \phi /\phi \cdot \nabla\); and \(P_ t\) is identified as the Markov semigroup associated with the energy form given by \(\phi\).