Reflectionless discrete Schrödinger operators are spectrally atypical (Q1749351)

Given a finite-gap compact \(E\) (a finite union of nondegenerate disjoint closed intervals on the real line), the main object under consideration is the isospectral torus \(\mathcal{J}(E)\), that is, the set of all absolutely continuous, almost-periodic, whole-line Jacobi operators \(J(a,b)\), \[ (JU)_n=a_{n}u_{n-1}+b_nu_n+a_{n+1}u_{n+1}, \quad u\in\ell^2(\mathbb{Z}), \] with spectrum \(E\). The discrete Schrödinger operators (DSO) are the Jacobi operators with \(a_n\equiv 1\). The logarithmic capacity of a finite-gap compact \(E\) can be computed by the relation \[ \operatorname{cap}(E)=\lim_{n\to\infty} (a_1a_2\dots a_n)^{1/n}, \qquad J(a,b)\in\mathcal{J}(E), \] so \(\operatorname{cap}(E)=1\) as soon as \(\mathcal{J}(E)\) contains a DSO. It turns out that the converse is false in the following sense. Theorem. The set of finite-gap compacts \(E\) of unit capacity, for which \(\mathcal{J}(E)\) contains a DSO is meager (a countable union of nowhere dense sets in the relevant topology) and has measure zero. The result remains true without any restriction on the capacity of \(E\) if instead of DSO one takes any Jacobi operator with the constant off-diagonal sequence \(a\).