Compactness of Schrödinger semigroups with unbounded below potentials (Q2378593)

Let \({\mathcal E}_0\) be a symmetric Dirichlet form with Markov generator \(L_0\) on \(L^2(\mu)\) over a \(\sigma\)-finite measure space \((E,{\mathcal F},\mu)\). It is assumed that \(L_0\) satisfies the following Poincaré-like inequality \[ \int_Ef^2\,d\mu\leq r{\mathcal E}_0(f,f)+\beta_0(r)\left(\int_E| f| \,d\mu\right)^2,\quad r>0, \] for some decreasing \(\beta_0:(0,\infty)\to (0,\infty)\). The Schrödinger semigroup generated by \(L_0-V\) for a class of (unbounded below) potentials \(V\) is proved to be \(L^2(\mu)\)-compact provided that \(\mu(V\leq N) < \infty\) for all \(N>0\). This condition is sharp at least in the context of countable Markov chains, and considerably improves known ones on, e.g., \(\mathbb R^d\) under the condition that \(V(x)\to\infty\) as \(| x| \to\infty\). Concrete examples are provided to illustrate the main result.