Decay of eigenfunctions of elliptic PDE's. I (Q481679)

The exponential decay of eigenfunctions of self-adjoint elliptic operators of the form \(H=Q(D)+V(x)\) on \(L^{2}(\mathbb{R}^{d})\), \(Q\) a real elliptic polynomial of higher order and \(V\) a real measurable bounded function, \(\lim_ {| x | \rightarrow \infty} V(x)=0\) is studied. The critical decay rate of an eigenfunction \(\phi \in L^{2}(\mathbb{R}^{d})\), \((H-\lambda) \phi = 0\) is defined as \(\sigma_{c}=\sup \left\{ \sigma \geq 0; e^{\sigma | x |} \phi \in L^{2} \right\}\). One gives: {\parindent=0.3cm \begin{itemize}\item[--] sufficient conditions on \(\lambda\) and \(V\) in order that \(\sigma_{c}>0\);\item[--] an algebraic description of \(\sigma_{c}\), if \(\sigma_{c}>0\) and \(V\) satisfies some decay estimates;\item[--] more precise estimates of the decay of the eigenfunctions if \(\sigma_{c} \in (0, \infty)\);\item[--] sufficient conditions on \(V\) in order that \(\sigma_{c} < \infty\) (absence of super-exponentially decaying eigenfunctions). \end{itemize}}