On the ordering of energy levels in homogeneous magnetic fields (Q5944695)

The authors consider the nonrelativistic quantum mechanical theory of a single particle in a homogeneous magnetic field and in an external potential. The Hamiltonian of the model considered acts in \(L^2(R^3,d^3x)\) as \[ H=-\Delta-BL_z+\frac{B^2}{4}r_{\perp}^{2}+V(r_{\perp},z), \] where \(B>0\) denotes the absolute value of the strength of the magnetic field, \(r_{\perp}=(x^2+y^2)^{1/2},\) \(x=(x,y,z,)\). See [\textit{J. Avron, I. Herbst}, and \textit{B. Simon}, Duke Math. J. 45, 847-883 (1978; Zbl 0399.35029)] for details on the definition of \(H\). One of the main results is the following: under some technical conditions on \(V(r_{\perp},z)\) and if the Laplacian of the potential off the \(z\)-axis is non-positive then the ground state energies \(E_m\) obey the following inequalities, if \(m\geq 1\) \[ E_m\geq \min\{E_{m-1},E_{m+1}\}, \] \[ E_{m}\geq (E_{m-1}+e_{m+1})/2\quad\text{if} E_m\geq E_{m-1}, \] \[ E_m\geq (mE_{m-1}+{m+1}E_{m+1})/(2m+1)\quad \text{if} \;E_m\geq E_{m+1}. \] The physical applications include atoms and ions in strong magnetic fields. There the energies are monotone increasing and concave in angular momentum. In the case of periodic chain of atoms the pseudoconcavity extends to the entire lowest bound of Bloch functions.