Trace formulas and Borg-type theorems for matrix-valued Jacobi and Dirac finite difference operators (Q2575604)

The authors prove Borg-type uniquness theorems for matrix-valued Jacobi operators \(H\) and supersymmetric Dirac difference operators \(D\). They assume reflectionless matrix coefficients \(A,B\) in the self-adjoint Jacobi operator \(H=AS^{+}+A^{-}S^{-}+B\) (with \(S^{\pm }\) the right /left shift operators on the lattice \(Z\)) and the spectrum of \(H\) to be a compact interval \([E_{-},E_{+}],E_{-}<E_{+},\) and prove that \(A\) and \(B\) are certain multiples of the identity matrix. An analogous result which, however, displays a certain novel nonuniqueness feature, is proved for supersymmetric self-adjoint Dirac difference operators \(D\) with spectrum given by \([-E_{+}^{\frac{1}{2}},-E_{-}^{\frac{1}{2}}]\cup [E_{-}^{\frac{1}{2}},E_{+}^{\frac{1}{2}}],0\leq E_{-}<E_{+}.\) The authors' approach is based on trace formulas and matrix-valued (exponential) Herlots representation theorems. As a by-product of their techniques the authors obtain the extension of Flaschka's Borg-type result for periodic Jacobi operators to the class of reflectionless matrix-valued Jacobi operators.