The spectrum of skew-shift Schrödinger operators contains intervals (Q665507)

The author considers the skew-shift operator, that is, the discrete Schrödinger operator \(H_h=h\Delta+V\), \(h>0\), on \(\ell^2(\mathbb{Z})\) with potential \[ V(n)=f(\alpha n^2),\quad n\in \mathbb{Z}, \] where \(\alpha\) is a fixed Diophantine number and \(f\) is a one-periodic, real-analytic function. The author proves that in the semi-classical regime, that is, when \(h>0\) is sufficiently small, the spectrum of \(H_h\) contains large intervals which approach the range of the function \(f\) as \(h\rightarrow 0\). More precisely, the author assumes the existence of a \(c>0\) for which \(\alpha\) satisfies the Diophantine condition \[ \|q\alpha\|\geq \frac{c}{q^2},\quad q\in \mathbb{Z}, \] where \(\|x\|=\mathrm{dist}(x,\mathbb{Z})\), and proves the existence of a constant \(h_0=h_0(c,f)>0\) such that for \(0<h<h_0\), large deviation estimates for the Green's function hold. The author's main result is that if the large deviation estimates for the Green's function hold and one sets \[ \mathcal{E}_{\delta}=\big\{E\, \big| \, f(x)=E\, \text{and}\, |f'(x)|\geq \delta \, \text{for some \(x\)}\big\},\quad \delta>0, \] then there exists \(h_1=h_1(\delta,f)>0\) such that \[ \mathcal{E}_{\delta}\subseteq \sigma\big(H_h\big),\quad 0<h<h_1, \] where \(\sigma\big(H_h\big)\) denotes the spectrum of \(H_h\). Consequently, the spectrum of \(H_h\) contains an interval for \(0<h<\min\{h_0,h_1\}\) since \(\mathcal{E}_{\delta}\) is a union of intervals. This work extends the known result due to \textit{J. Bourgain} [J. Anal. Math. 88, 221--254 (2002; Zbl 1058.47002)] that the spectrum has positive measure.