On the empty essential spectrum for Markov processes in dimension one (Q2508602)

The author provides (necessary and) sufficient criteria such that the essential spectrum of a generator of a diffusion operator \(L\) on the half-line or the generator of a birth-and-death process is empty. Consider the diffusion operator \[ L = a(x)\frac{d^2}{dx^2} + b(x)\frac{d}{dx}\text{ on }[0,\infty),\quad0<a\in C^2[0,\infty),\;b\in C^1[0,\infty), \] and set \(C(x) := \int_0^x \frac{b(t)}{a(t)}\,dt\). If the corresponding diffusion process is positive recurrent, then the essential spectrum of \(L\) is empty if and only if \[ \lim_{x\to\infty} \int_0^x e^{-C(y)}\,dy \cdot \int_x^\infty \frac{e^{C(u)}}{a(u)}\,du = 0. \] The proof relies on a characterization of compact embeddings of the domain of Dirichlet forms into the basic \(L^2\)-space and the relation to eigenvalues of the generator of the form. An analogous criterion, but with a completely different proof, is given for birth-and-death processes. The paper closes with concrete examples and applications of the above criteria.