Spectra of rank-one perturbations of self-adjoint operators (Q2226466)

Let \(A\) be a self-adjoint operator with simple discrete spectrum acting in a separable Hilbert space \(H\). The authors study the possible spectra of rank-one perturbations of \(A\), that is, of operators of the form \(B = A + \langle \cdot, \varphi \rangle \psi\), where \(\varphi, \psi \in H \setminus \{0\}\). The analysis is based on the characteristic function \(F(\lambda) = \langle (A-\lambda)^{-1} \psi, \varphi \rangle +1\) and the Krein formula for the resolvent of \(B\). The resolvent of \(B\) turns out to be compact, so that \(B\) has discrete spectrum. First the multiplicity of the eigenvalues of \(B\) is investigated. The geometric multiplicity does not exceed \(2\). The authors give necessary and sufficient conditions for it being \(1\) or \(2\). The algebraic multiplicity of an eigenvalue of \(B\) is completely determined in terms of its multiplicity as a zero of (the analytic continuation of) \(F\). Under the additional assumption that the distance between any two eigenvalues of \(A\) is bounded away from zero, the location of the eigenvalues of \(B\) is studied. In particular, it is proved that, for any \(\epsilon>0\), all eigenvalues of \(B\) of sufficiently large absolute value are localized in an \(\epsilon\)-neighborhood of the eigenvalues of \(A\); hence they are simple. On the other hand, each finite collection of complex numbers can be realized as eigenvalues with arbitrarily prescribed algebraic multiplicities of some rank-one perturbation \(B\) of \(A\). In the finite dimensional setting, such a result is due to [\textit{M. Krupnik}, Linear Algebra Appl. 167, 113--118 (1992; Zbl 0762.15004)]. The methods of the article under review lead to an improvement of this result in finite dimensions. At the end of the paper, possible generalizations to a wider class of operators \(A\) are briefly discussed.