Commutator methods for unitary operators (Q361717)

Commutator methods initiated by E. Mourre have become efficient tools for investigating spectral properties of selfadjoint operators; see [\textit{W. O. Amrein}, \textit{A. Boutet de Monvel} and \textit{V. Georgescu}, \(C_0\)-groups, commutator methods and spectral theory of N-body Hamiltonians. Basel: Birkhäuser (1996; Zbl 0962.47500)]. The authors present similar ideas and results for unitary operators. A unitary operator \(U\) is assumed smooth with respect to a selfadjoint operator \(A\). This means various smoothness assumptions on the function \(t\mapsto e^{-itA}Ue^{itA}\). Under a commutator inequality of Mourre type, the operator \(U\) is shown to have no singular continuous spectrum; its point spectrum is locally finite. Several examples are considered, including perturbations of bilateral shifts, perturbations of the Schrödinger free evolution, and cocycles over irrational rotations.