Semiclassical low energy scattering for one-dimensional Schrödinger operators with exponentially decaying potentials (Q451772)

The present paper concerns the \(1\)-dimensional Schrödinger operator \[ H(\hbar) := -\hbar^2\frac{d^2}{dx^2} + V(x; \hbar) \tag{1} \] with potential \(V(x; \hbar)\) being a positive, smooth function in \(x \in {\mathbb R}\) exponentially decaying as \(|x| \rightarrow \infty\) and also dependent (but only very mildly) on the semiclassical parameter \(\hbar >0\). Specifically, it is assumed to be of the form \(V(x; \hbar) = V_{\pm}(e^{-|x|};\hbar)\) for \(\pm\, x \geq a\) where \(a>0\) is some large constant and \(V_{\pm}(\cdot;\hbar)\) are two smooth functions with \(V_{\pm}(0;\hbar)=0\). Then \(H(\hbar)\) defines a selfadjoint operator in \(L^2({\mathbb R})\) with domain \(D(H(\hbar)) =H^2({\mathbb R})\) and spectrum \(\sigma(H(\hbar)) = [0,\infty)\) purely absolutely continuous. In the paper under review, the authors study the low energy (\(E \rightarrow 0^+\)) scattering in the simultaneous semiclassical limit \(\hbar \rightarrow 0^+\). To this end, they take care about the Jost functions \(f_{\pm}(x,E; \hbar)\), which are two solutions of equation \(H(\hbar) f = E^2 f\) obeying the asymptotics \(f_{\pm} (x, E; \hbar) \sim e^{\pm i\frac{E}{\hbar}x}\) as \(x \rightarrow \pm \infty\), and find, for them and their derivatives with respect to \(E\), those global semiclassical representations which hold uniformly in both small parameters \(E\) and \(\hbar\) (Theorem 1.1). The pairs \(f_{\pm}(E;\hbar)\) and \(\overline{f_{\pm}(E;\hbar)}\) of functions are two fundamental systems for equation \(H(\hbar)f = E^2 f\) if \(E \not= 0\), and the coefficient matrix of the linear system of equations \(\begin{pmatrix} \overline{f_+(E; \hbar)}\\ \overline{f_-(E; \hbar)}\end{pmatrix} = {\mathbb S}(E; \hbar) \begin{pmatrix} f_+(E; \hbar) \\ f_+(E; \hbar)\end{pmatrix} \) is the scattering matrix \({\mathbb S}(E; \hbar)\) associated with \(H(\hbar)\). It is seen that \({\mathbb S}(E; \hbar) = \begin{pmatrix} t(E; \hbar) & \overline{r(E; \hbar)}\\ r(E; \hbar) & t(E; \hbar) \end{pmatrix}, \) where \(r(E; \hbar)\) and \(t(E; \hbar)\) are respectively the reflection and transmission amplitudes. Based on the obtained representations, the authors show, as the main result (Theorem 1.2), asymptotic representations for \(r(E; \hbar)\) and \(t(E; \hbar)\) as both \(E \rightarrow 0^+\) and \(\hbar \rightarrow 0^+\), and therefore also for the scattering matrix \({\mathbb S}(E; \hbar)\). The interesting fact is what is the background of this problem with the authors' motivation for its study, to the effect that it comes from investigating ``the large angular momentum behavior of solutions to the Regge-Wheeler equation \[ \partial_t^2 \psi_{\ell}(t,x) -\partial_x^2 \psi_{\ell}(t,x) +V_{\ell}(x)\psi_{\ell}(t,x) =0, \quad (t,x) \in [0,\infty) \times {\mathbb R}, \] which describes perturbations of a Schwarzschild black hole in general relativity [\textit{T. Regge} and \textit{J. A. Wheeler}, Phys. Rev., II. Ser. 108, 1063--1069 (1957; Zbl 0079.41902)].'' ``The Regge-Wheeler potential \(V_{\ell}(x)\) decays exponentially towards the event horizon of the black hole'', i.e. as \(x \rightarrow -\infty\), but ``behaves like \(\frac{\ell(\ell+1)}{x^2}\) as \(x \rightarrow \infty\)'', ``and thus, one is naturally led to a Schrödinger equation of the form (1) where \(\hbar^{-1}\) corresponds to the angular momentum \(\ell\)'', so that ``in the limit \(\ell \rightarrow \infty\) the problem becomes semiclassical'' just as the present paper under review deals with. For this issue they refer to the three papers[\textit{R. Donninger} and \textit{W. Schlag}, Int. Math. Res. Not. 2010, No. 22, 4276--4300 (2010; Zbl 1241.35018); \textit{R. Donninger} et al., Commun. Math. Phys. 309, No. 1, 51--86 (2012; Zbl 1242.83054); Adv. Math. 226, No. 1, 484--540 (2011; Zbl 1205.83041)].