Schrödinger operators with matrix potentials. Transition from the absolutely continuous to the singular spectrum (Q1888355)

The so-called ``spectral \(L^2\)-conjecture'' for the Schrödinger operator \(H=-d^2/dx^2 +v(x)\) is that if the potential \(v(x)\) is square-integrable, the absolutely continuous spectrum of \(H\) is equal to the set \([0,\infty)\) and the absolutely continuous component of its spectral measure is essentially supported on \([0,\infty)\). For the case of scalar potentials \(v(x)\), the conjecture was justified by \textit{R. Deift} and \textit{R. Kilip} [Commun. Math. Phys. 203, 341--347 (1999; Zbl 0934.34075)], and was further studied by the authors of the present paper in [\textit{S. Molchanov, M. Novitskii} and \textit{B. Vainberg}, Commun. Math. Phys. 216, 195--213 (2001; Zbl 0980.35149)] with a different approach which enabled them to observe further involved aspects. In the paper under review, the authors prove this conjecture for the matrix potentials case, extending their previous result for the scalar potentials case. The main result is: Let \(H= -\frac{d^2}{dx^2} +v(x)\) be the Schrödinger operator with a \(n\times n\) symmetric matrix-valued potential \(v(x)\) acting on functions \(\psi(x)\) in \(L^2({\mathbb R}_+)\otimes {\mathbb C}^n\) with the Neumann boundary condition \(\psi'(0)=0\). If \[ \begin{aligned} J_p(v) :&= \int_0^{\infty} \biggl[\biggl\| \frac{d^{p-1}}{dx^{p-1}}v(x)\biggr\| ^2 + \| v(x)\| ^{p+1} \biggr]\,dx\\ \biggl(J_0(v)&= \int_0^{\infty}\| v(x)\| \,dx,\,\, J_1(v)= \int_0^{\infty}\| v(x)\| ^2\,dx\biggr) \end{aligned} \] is finite for some \(p \geq 0\), then the spectral measure \(\mu(d\lambda)\) of the selfadjoint operator \(H\) has the absolutely continuous component of multiplicity \(n\) which is essentially supported on \([0,\infty)\).