Asymptotic spectral analysis in colliding leaky quantum layers (Q333870)

Semiconductor heterostructures have tremendous impact on science and technology as building blocks for a bottom-up approach to the fabrication of nanoscale devices. A key property of these material systems is the unique versatility in terms of geometrical dimensions and composition and their ability to exhibit quantum effects. Theoretical studies have lead to interesting mathematical problems which involve an interaction of differential geometry, spectral analysis and theory of partial differential equations. Here, the mathematical concept of leaky quantum graphs or waveguides introduced recently by some authors, where the quantum Hamiltonian is modeled by the Schrodinger operator with a Dirac-measure potential supported on a hypersurface in \(\mathbb R^d(d>1)\) is realized. The situations \(d=1,2,3\) are of particular interest in the context of mesoscopic physics of nanostructures, where they are sometimes referred to as quantum dots, wires or layers, respectively. The objective of this paper is to quantify the effect of tunneling by considering coalescing heterostructures modeled by Dirac-measure potentials imposed on two parallel hypersurfaces separated by a distance e and studying spectral properties in the limit as e tends to zero. Spectral asymptotics of systems with leaky quantum waveguides have been analyzed in various contexts and dimensions recently. The geometric setting introduced in this paper is new and interesting both physically and mathematically. In fact, to establish the eigenvalue asymptotics as e tends to zero, it is necessary to combine diverse methods of Riemannian geometry, spectral analysis and theory of partial differential equations. Motivated by a growing interest in non-self-adjoint operators in recent years in the paper in a great generality by allowing complex couplings on the colliding hypersurfaces are considered.