Localization and semibounded energy -- a weak unique continuation theorem (Q1576291)

Let \(M\) be a closed Riemannian manifold, and let \(E\to M\) be a Hermitian vector bundle over \(M\). Let \(D\) be an operator of Dirac type on sections of \(E\). Suppose that \(\mathcal{H}\) is a closed subspace of \(L^{2}(M,E)\) that is invariant under \(D\), and suppose that the restriction of \(D\) to \(\mathcal{H}\) is semibounded. A typical example of this situation occurs when \(\mathcal{H}\) is a direct sum of eigenspaces of \(D\) whose corresponding eigenvalues are bounded from below. The main theorem of this paper states that every element \(\psi\in \mathcal{H}\) satisfies the weak unique continuation property. That is, if \(\psi\) vanishes on an open subset of \(M\), then \(\psi\) vanishes on all of \(M\). Other theorems concerning this property generally require that elements of the subspace satisfy a type of local condition such as a differential inequality. In contrast, the hypothesis of the theorem in this paper is a nonlocal condition that applies in many useful situations that arise in global analysis and mathematical physics.