Molecular predissociation resonances near an energy-level crossing. I: Elliptic interaction (Q2634258)

The authors consider the asymptotic behaviour of the resonances of a system of two one-dimensional Schrödinger operators as the semiclassical parameter \(h\) tends to \(0_+\). The motivation comes, to quote the authors, from making a first attempt in a model case ``to study the diatomic molecular predissociation resonances in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, at energies close to that of the crossing of the electronic levels''. More precisely, consider the system \[ Pu := \begin{pmatrix} P_1 & hW \\ hW^\ast & P_2 \end{pmatrix} u =Eu \] on \(L^2(\mathbb{R})^2\), where \(P_j = h^2 (-i\frac{d}{dx})^2+V_j(x)\), \(j=1,2\), \(W=W(x,h(-i\frac{d}{dx}))\) is a semiclassical differential operator and \(W^\ast\) is its (formal) adjoint. The potentials \(V_j\) are assumed to be real analytic with a holomorphic extension to (roughly speaking) a double sector \(\Gamma\) around the real axis in the complex plane, which admit limits as \(\mathrm{Re } x \to \pm \infty\) in \(\Gamma\), and moreover, in order to generate a model crossing, it is assumed that {\parindent=0.6cm\begin{itemize}\item[(a)] \(\lim_{\underset{\mathrm{Re }x \to -\infty} {x \in \Gamma}} V_j (x) > 0\) for \(j=1,2\), \item[(b)] \(\lim_{\underset{\mathrm{Re } x \to +\infty} {x \in \Gamma}} V_2 (x) < \lim_{\underset{\mathrm{Re }, x \to +\infty}{ x \in \Gamma}} V_1 (x)\), and \item[(c)] for some \(x^\ast < 0\), we have {\parindent=0.8cm\begin{itemize}\item[(i)] \(V_1, V_2 > 0\) on \((-\infty,x^\ast)\), \item[(ii)] \(V_1 < 0 < V_2\) on \((x^\ast,0)\), and \item[(iii)] \(V_2 < 0 < V_1\) on \((0,+\infty\), \end{itemize}} with \(V_1'(x^\ast)<0\), \(V_1'(0)>0\) and \(V_2'(0)<0\). \end{itemize}} The coupling operator \(W\) is assumed to be of first order, of the form \[ W\left(x,h\left(-i\frac{d}{dx}\right)\right) = r_0(x) + r_1(x)h\left(-i\frac{d}{dx}\right), \] where \(r_0\) and \(r_1\) are bounded analytic functions on \(\Gamma\) with \(r_0 (x) \in \mathbb{R}\) for all \(x \in \mathbb{R}\). (Certain possibilities to change some of these assumptions are also discussed.) Of interest are the resonances of \(P\), i.e., those \(E \in \mathbb{C}\) for which there is a nontrivial solution \(u\) of \(Pu=Eu\) for which the rotated function \(x \mapsto u(xe^{i\theta})\) is in \(L^2(\mathbb{R})^2\) for some (sufficiently small) \(\theta > 0\). The main result (Theorem 2.1) then states, firstly, that the set of resonances in the set \[ [-C_0 h^{2/3}, C_0 h^{2/3}] - i [0, C_0 h] \] is countably infinite and so of the form \(\{E_k (h):k \in \mathbb{Z} \}\) for \(h>0\) small enough (where \(C_0>0\) may be fixed arbitrarily large). Secondly, two-term asymptotic expansions as \(h\to 0_+\) of \(\mathrm{Re}\, E_k(h)\) up to \(\mathcal{O} (h^{5/3})\) and \(\mathrm{Im } E_k (h)\) up to \(\mathcal{O}(h^2)\) are determined; in particular, we have \(\mathrm{Re }E_k(h) \sim h^{2/3}\) and \(\mathrm{Im } E_k (h) \sim h^{5/3}\), and the exact constants in the expansions are given in terms of the behaviour of \(V_1\) near \(0\) as well as certain integral expressions of the Airy function \(\mathrm{Ai}\). The proof cannot use any of the standard methods from the scalar case. Instead, it relies on constructing fundamental solutions of the two unperturbed scalar equations. These have the advantage that their behaviour is completely known, both for \(h \to 0_+\) and \(h \to \infty\), and thus can be used to solve the system by means of a suitable iterative procedure. A careful analysis of the solutions obtained yields the result.