A Minimax Principle for the Eigenvalues in Spectral Gaps (Q4487489)

The classical minimax principle provides a variational characterization of all eigenvalues below the essential spectrum of a selfadjoint operator that is bounded below. The authors derived a minimax principle for the eigenvalues in the spectral gap of a possibly non-semibounded selfadjoint operator. It generalized the standard minimax principle and allows to prove that 1. the \(n\)th eigenvalue of the Dirac operator with Coulomb potential is an upper bound for the \(n\)th eigenvalue of the relativistic Hamiltonian due to Brown and Ravenhall; 2. the Dirac operator with suitable non-positive potential has at least as many discrete eigenvalues as the Schrödinger operator with the same potential.