Exponential decay of eigenfunctions in many-body type scattering with second-order perturba\-tions (Q1876260)

Let \(H\) be an elliptic second-order geometric many-body type perturbation of the Laplacian. There are two principal results: 1. The \(L^2\)-eigenfunctions of \(H\) with non-threshold eigenvalues \(\lambda\) decay exponentially at a rate given by the distance of \(\lambda\) to the next threshold above it. If there are no positive thresholds, this implies the super-exponential decay of eigenfunctions at positive energies. 2. A unique continuation theorem at infinity, namely that for first-order and small second-order perturbations of the Laplacian, super-exponential decay of an eigenfunction \(\psi\) implies that \(\psi\) is identically 0. In particular, for these perturbations there are no positive eigenvalues. The methods are closely related to both those of R. Froese and I. Herbst and of the two-body-type unique continuation theorems. Only the indicial operators of \(H\) (which are non-commutative analogues of the usual principal symbol) and its symbol in a high-energy sense play a role. The key estimates arise from a positive commutator estimate for the conjugated Hamiltonian, which is closely related to Hörmander's solvability condition for PDEs.