No label defined (Q3976402)

[For the entire collection see Zbl 0733.00022.] This is a comprehensive review on `Multiparticle discrete Schrödinger operators' (recently christned as `Nonstandard Schrödinger operators') and their application in solid-state physics. The survey concentrates on one of the better-known examples of nonstandard \(SO\), namely Schrödinger operators on a lattice, or discrete \(SO\) (DSO). A typical \(N\)-particle DSO is of the form \(H=-\sum^ N_{i=1}\Delta_ i+\sum_{i>j}V_{ij}\), where \(\Delta_ i\) is the kinetic energy operator for the ith particle. It is the difference operator which describes the transport of the particle from one site to another. \(V_{ij}\) is the interaction operator between the ith and jth particle. \(H\) acts on a lattice. The review is an attempt to evoke interest among mathematicians in a new area of application and pose for them some clearly defined problems. It attempts to highlight the existence of a new area in solid state physics based on rigorous mathematical methods. The relevance of investigation on DSO is that the mathematician is confronted with a model possessing interesting and nontrivial mathematical structures. On the other hand for the physicists DSO opens up perspectives of discovering new effects in solid state physics. The review starts with statements of problems, investigation techniques, known results and open problems for models with a conserved number of quasiparticles, mainly the Heisenberg and Hubbard models. In the model with a conserved number of quasiparticle a rigorous statement of the problem is possible, because the ground state is precisely known. In continuation, the author compares with one another the \(N\)-particle DSO and SO, the Hamiltonians of solid-state physics and cluster-operators. The problem of \(N\) bosons on a lattice with contact attraction has many features reflecting the analogy between the DSO and SO; it is treated in greater detail. This is followed by discussion on DSO with broken translation-invariance corresponding to models of ordered crystals with a single impurity and the system of \(N\) quasiparticles in an external field. Next, models with non-conserved number of quasiparticles, with bounded number as in several-component Heisenberg ferromagnet and with unbounded numbers as in the case of polarons and phonons in anharmonic crystals and for the anisotropic Heisenberg ferromagnet. Finally the discussion is on problems associated with the \(N\)-particle DSO, but not rigorously stated as yet, e.g., the relationship between solitons and bound states, systems with uncertain ground states.