Relativistic hydrogenic atoms in strong magnetic fields (Q2384997)

The authors consider the Dirac operator for a hydrogenic atom with a strong constant magnetic \(B\) field (the energy is measured in units of the rest energy of the particle): \[ H_B - \frac{\nu}{| x| }, \quad H_B := \alpha \left[ \frac{1}{i} \nabla + \frac{1}{2} B (-x_2,x_1,0) + \beta \right] . \] In the free case (\(B=0\), \(\nu=0\)) the Dirac operator has no eigenvalues and its spectrum is \(\sigma(H_0) = \sigma_{\text{ess}}(H_B)= (-\infty, -1]\cup[1,\infty)\). If \(\nu\neq 0\), the gap in the essential spectrum remains but eigenvalues can appear in the spectral gap. The smallest eigenvalue is denoted by \(\lambda_1(\nu,B)\). The authors show that for all \(B\geq 0\) the eigenvalue is continuous and non-increasing in \(\nu\) as long as it stays in the gap of the essential spectrum. Moreover, for fixed \(\nu\in(0,1)\) the eigenvalues are Lipschitz continuous in \(B\) as long as they are larger than \(-1\) and \(B>0\). The basic result of the paper is a variational characterisation of the eigenvalues in the gap of the essential spectrum of \(H_B\): \[ \lambda_1(\nu,B) = \inf_{\phi\in C_0^\infty(\mathbb R^3,\mathbb C^2)} \lambda[\phi,\nu,B], \] \(\lambda[\phi,\nu,B]\) is the unique zero of a functional \(J[\lambda,\phi,\nu,B]\) for fixed \(\nu\), \(B\) and \(\phi\). It is shown that for \(B\) large enough, the eigenvalue eventually reaches \(-1\). The authors call the value of \(B\) for which this happens the critical magnetic field \(B(\nu)\). Using scaling methods, they derive upper and lower bounds for \(B(\nu)\). In the last section, the eigenvalue \(\lambda_1(\nu,B)\) is compared with the lowest energy level of the Landau operator for small \(\nu\). Upper and lower bounds for \(\lambda_1(\nu,B)\) are derived in terms of the lowest energy level of \(H_B\) restricted to the eigenspace of the lowest eigenvalue of the Landau operator.