Construction of the essential spectrum for a multidimensional non-self-adjoint Schrödinger operator via the spectra of operators with periodic potentials. I (Q1402337)

In the two papers (Part I and II) under review, the author investigates the essential spectrum of the \(m\)-dimensional Schrödinger operator \(H :=-\Delta + V(x)\) in \(L^2(\mathbb{R}^m)\) with a complex-valued, locally bounded potential \(V(x)\). By the essential spectrum \(\sigma_e(H)\) of \(H\) the author means the set of all complex numbers \(\lambda\) for which there exists a non-compact sequence \(\{\psi_n\}\) of unit vectors satisfying s-\(\lim_{n\rightarrow \infty} (H- \lambda I)\psi_n =0\). A concept is introduced to approximate a given potential \(V(x)\): A family \(\{V_y(x)\}_{y\in \mathbb{R}^m}\) of measurable, locally bounded potentials is called an asymptotic family for \(V(x)\) if there exists a real-valued, non-deceasing function \(h(t)\) in \(t \geq 0\) with \(\lim_{t \rightarrow \infty} h(t) = \infty\) such that \(\lim_{| y| \rightarrow \infty}\sup_{x\in Q_y^h}| V(x)-V_y(x)| =0\), where \(Q_y^h\) is a box in \(\mathbb{R}^m\) near the point \(y= (y_1, \dots, y_m)\) with size \(h(\max_{1\leq j\leq m}| y_j| )\). With \(H^y := -\Delta + V_y(x)\), the family \(\{H^y\}_{y\in \mathbb{R}^m}\) is called an asymptotic family of Schrödinger operators for \(H\). In Part I, extending his previous results of the one-dimensional case (\(m=1\)) in [Differ. Equations 12, 563--569 (1976; Zbl 0365.34030); ibid., 999--1006 (1976; Zbl 0374.34021)], the author proves that under some conditions on an asymptotic family of periodic potentials \(\{V_y\}\) which approximates \(V(x)\), the essential spectrum \(\sigma_e(H)\) coincides with the set \(\Gamma\{V_y\}\) of the complex numbers \(\lambda\) for which the family \(\{(H^y -\lambda I)^{-1}\}_{y\in \mathbb{R}^m}\) of the resolvents for \(H^y\) is unbounded in norm at infinity. This set \(\Gamma\{V_y\}\) may sometimes coincide with the set of the limit points of the spectra \(\sigma (H^y)\) of the \(H^y\) as \(| y| \rightarrow \infty\). It is also studied to find conditions when this coincidence occurs. Part II deals with an internal structure of the essential spectrum \(\sigma_e(H)\). Under some conditions on an asymptotic family of approximating periodic potentials, the author proves that any compact isolated part of \(\sigma_e(H)\) consists a finite number of connected components, and, for a real-valued potential \(V(x)\) (the selfadjoint case), the set \(\sigma_e(H)\) consists of at most a countable number of segments.