Destruction of absolutely continuous spectrum by perturbation potentials of bounded variation (Q2460048)

The author studies the absolutely continuous spectrum \(\sigma_{ac} (H_v)\) (given by \(\Sigma_{ac}(H_v))\) of the discrete one-dimensional Schrödinger operators \(H_v\) on \(\ell^2(N)\): \(H_v=H_0+V\), \(H_0= \Delta+V_0\), with \((\Delta\psi)(n)=\psi(n+1) +\psi(n-1)\) for \(n>1\) and \((\Delta\psi)(1)=\psi(2)\) and \((V\psi)(n)=V(n)\psi(n)\). One says that \(V\) is decaying if \(V(n)\to 0\) as \(n\to\infty\), and \(V\) is of bounded variation if \(\Sigma_{n=1\sim\infty} \mid V(n+1)-V(n)|<\infty\). Let \(\delta_j(n)=1\) if \(j=n\), and \(=0\) otherwise. Then \(\Sigma_{ac}(H)\) is the set \(\{E\in\mathbb{R} \mid \lim_{\varepsilon\downarrow 0}\text{Im}\langle\delta_1, (H-E-i\varepsilon)^{-1}\delta_1 \rangle\neq 0,\text{ exists and is finite}\}\), and \(\sigma_{ac}(H) =\{E\in \mathbb{R} \mid |\Sigma_{ac}(H)\cap(E-\varepsilon,E+\varepsilon)|>0\;\forall\varepsilon>0\}\). The author proves the following two theorems. (1) If \(H_0\) has nowhere dense spectrum, then there exists a decaying \(V\) of bounded variation for which \(\Sigma_{ac}(H_v)=\varnothing\). (2) There exists a decaying \(V_0\) and a decaying \(V\) of bounded variation such that \(\Sigma_{ac} (H_0)=\Sigma_{ac}(\Delta)=(-2,2)\), but \(\Sigma_{ac}(H_v)=\varnothing\). In the proofs, the products \(\Phi_{m,n}(E)\), \(\Phi_n(E)\) of the associated \(2\times 2\) transfer matrices \(T_n(E)=[T_{ij}]\), \(T_{11}=E-V(n)\), \(T_{21}=-T_{12}=1\), \(T_{22}=0\), are used. For these, it is shown that \[ \lim\sup_{N\to \infty}N^{-1}(\log N)^{-2}\sum_{n=1}^N \|\Phi_n(E)\|^2< \infty \] for almost every \(E\in\Sigma_{ac}(H_v)\).