Exponential decay of eigenfunctions of the Bethe-Salpeter operator (Q5944706)

Let \[ D_0:={\alpha(-i\nabla)}+\beta:= \sum_{j=1}^{3}-i\alpha_j{\partial\over\partial x_j}+ \beta \] be the free Dirac operator with domain \[ \text{dom}(D_0)= H^1(\mathbb{R}^3;\mathbb{C}^4) \] acting in \(L^2(\mathbb{R}^3;\mathbb{C}^4)\). Dirac matrices \(\alpha_j\) and \(\beta\) are expressed via Pauli matrices in the usual way. It is known that the spectrum of \(D_0\) is absolutely continuous and is the union of two half-lines \((-\infty,-1]\cup[1,\infty)\). To have the spectrum bounded from below, the authors consider the Bethe-Salpeter operator \(B_V\) obtained from the Dirac operator by adding a potential \(V\) to \(D_0\) and restricting the obtained operator to the positive subspace of \(D_0\). They assume that \(V\) satisfies the following conditions: \((\psi,V^2\psi)\leq \gamma^2(\psi,(-\Delta+1)\psi)\) for all \(\psi\in H^2(\mathbb{R}^3;\mathbb{C}^4)\) and some \(\gamma<1\) and \(\|V(x)\|_{{\mathcal L}(\mathbb{C}^4)}\rightarrow 0\) as \(|x|\rightarrow \infty\). The authors prove that the eigenfunctions of \(B_V\) corresponding to the eigenvalues located in \((0,1-a)\) (\(a\in(0,1)\)) decay exponentially as fast or faster than \(e^{-a|x|}\).