Quantum scattering at low energies (Q841501)

For a class of negative slowly decaying potentials, including \(V(x):= -\gamma |x|^{-\mu}\) with \(0<\mu <2\), the authors study the quantum mechanical scattering theory for the pair \(\{-\Delta, -\Delta+V\}\) in the low-energy regime. This paper can be viewed as a continuation the authors' paper in [Boca, Florin-Petre (ed.) et al., Perspectives in operator algebras and mathematical physics. Proceedings of the 3rd conference on operator algebras and mathematical physics, Bucharest, Romania, August 10--17, 2005. Bucharest: Theta. Theta Series in Advanced Mathematics 8, 51--83 (2008; Zbl 1199.81036)] (where similar set of problems were solved for the case of classical scattering) and the paper by \textit{S. Fournais} and \textit{E. Skibsted} [Math. Z. 248, 593--633 (2004; Zbl 1177.35057)] (where a complete expansion of the resolvent at the zero-energy threshold was obtained). It is well-known that one can extract some detailed information about the kernel of the \(S\)-matrix by using the Isozaki-Kitada construction of the wave operators. However there is one severe limitation of this approach namely that the energy needs to be bounded away from zero. In the paper under review the authors use appropriate modifiers of the Isozaki-Kitada type and show that the modified scattering matrices \(S(\lambda )\) are well-defined on the whole continuous spectrum of the Hamiltonian and strongly continuous down to the zero energy threshold. Similarly, it is proved that the modified wave matrices and generalized eigenfunctions are norm continuous down to the zero energy in case of using appropriate weighted spaces. These results are used to derive (oscillatory) asymptotics of the standard short-range and Dollard type \(S\)-matrices for the subclasses of potentials where both kinds of \(S\)-matrices are defined. For potentials whose leading part is \(-\gamma|x|^{- \mu}\) they show that the location of singularities of the kernel of \(S(\lambda)\) experiences an abrupt change from passing from positive energies \(\lambda\) to the limiting energy \(\lambda=0\). This change corresponds to the behaviour of the classical orbits. Under stronger conditions one can extract the leading term of the asymptotics of the kernel of \(S(\lambda )\) at its singularities.