Absence of point spectrum for unitary operators (Q2467722)

The authors consider a time-dependent Schrödinger equation \[ i \frac{\partial}{\partial t} \varphi = - \Delta \varphi + V (t) \varphi, \] where \(-\Delta\) denotes the Laplace operator, and the potential \(V (t)\) is given by a real-valued function \(V (\cdot,t)\) defined on \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\). It is assumed that there exists a unitary propagator \((U (t,s))_{(t,s) \in \mathbb{R} \times \mathbb{R}}\), what is ensured by the following conditions on the potential \(V (\cdot,\cdot)\): \[ \parallel V \parallel_{L^{\infty} (\mathbb{R}^{n} \times [0,T])} < \infty, \;\parallel \nabla_{x} V \parallel_{L^{\infty} (\mathbb{R}^{n} \times [0,T])} < \infty \] for all \(T > 0\). Under these conditions the authors prove in particular the following result. Let the potential \(V (\cdot,\cdot)\) be time-periodic with period \(T\), i.e. \(V (x,t + T) = V (x,t)\) for all \(x \in \mathbb{R}^{n}\) and \(t \in \mathbb{R}\), and let it be repulsive, that means that \(x \cdot \nabla_{x} V (x,t) \leq 0\) for all \(x \in \mathbb{R}^{n}\) and \(t \in [0,T].\) Then the Floquet operator \(U (T,0)\) has no eigenvalues in \(H^{1} (\mathbb{R}^{n}) \cap \{ \psi \in L^{2} (\mathbb{R}^{n}) : x \psi \in L^{2} (\mathbb{R}^{n}) \}.\)