The bottom of the spectrum of time-changed processes and the maximum principle of Schrödinger operators (Q1661581)

The paper studies the maximum principle and the Liouville property of Schrödinger operators. Let \(X\) be a locally compact separable metric space and \(m\) a positive Radon measure on \(X\) with full topological support. Denote by \(X_{\vartriangle}:=X\cup \{\vartriangle\}\) the one-point compactification of \(X\). Let \(\mathbf{M}=(\mathbf{P}_x,X_t, \zeta)\) be an \(m\)-symmetric Hunt process with lifetime \(\zeta=\inf\{t>0\mid X_t=\vartriangle\}\). Assume that \(\mathbf{M}\) is irreducible and strong Feller. Let \(\mu=\mu^+-\mu^-\) be a signed Radon measure such that the positive (resp. negative) part \(\mu^+\) (resp. \(\mu^-\)) belongs to the local Kato class (resp. the Kato class). Denote by \(A_t^{\mu^+}\) (resp. \(A_t^{\mu^-}\)) the positive continuous additive functional in the Revuz correspondence to \(\mu^+\) (resp. \(\mu^-\)). Put \(A_t^{\mu}=A_t^{\mu^+}-A_t^{\mu^-}\) and define the Feynman-Kac semigroup \(\{p_t^{\mu}\}_{t\geq 0}\) by \[ p_t^{\mu}f(x)=\mathbf{E}_x\left(e^{-A_t^{\mu}}f(X_t)\right). \] Define \[ \mathcal{H}^{ba}(\mu)=\big\{h\in\mathcal{B}(X)\mid h \text{ is bounded above},\;p_t^{\mu}h\geq h\big\} \] and \[ \mathcal{H}^b(\mu)=\big\{h\in \mathcal{B}_b(X)\mid p_t^{\mu}h=h\big\}. \] The author defines the \textit{maximum principle} by \[ \text{if } h\in \mathcal{H}^{ba}(\mu), \text{ then } h(x)\leq 0 \text{ for all } x\in X, \] and the \textit{Liouville property} by \[ \text{if } h\in \mathcal{H}^{b}(\mu), \text{ then } h(x)= 0 \text{ for all } x\in X. \] The author gives a necessary and sufficient condition for the maximum principle in terms of the bottom of the spectrum of the time-changed process, i.e., \(\lambda(\mu)\) which is defined by Equation (1) of the paper. As a corollary, a sufficient condition for the Liouville property is given.