Multiparameter perturbation theory of Fredholm operators applied to Bloch functions (Q845210)

Let a linear Fredholm operator \(A(t)\) from a Banach space \(B_1\) to a Banach space \(B\), depending on parameters \(t=(t_1,\dots,t_n)\), be given and assume that \(A(t)\) is an analytic function of its parameters ranging in a connected domain \(\Omega\) of an \(n\)-dimensional complex space \({\mathbb C}^n\). It is sought to find the parameter values for which \(\text{dim}\;\text{Ker} A(t) \neq 0\), i.e., the equation \(A(t)u=0\) has a nonzero solution \(u\in B_1\). The set of such parameters \(t\) is denoted by \(\Lambda\). In the paper under review, the author implements a general approach which allows locally to reduce the above problem to a finite-dimensional situation, namely, in a neighborhood of a given point \(t_0\), to find a finite-dimensional operator \(\widehat{g}(t): {\mathbb C}^m \to {\mathbb C}^m\) analytically depending on the parameters \(t\) and satisfying the condition that, for \(t\) sufficiently close to \(t_0\), \(\text{dim}\;\text{Ker}\;A(t) = \text{dim}\;\text{Ker}\;\widehat{g}(t)\). Thus the problem of solving the equation \(A(t)u = 0\) is reduced to the problem of investigating a finite-dimensional system of linear equations \(\widehat{g}(t) d = 0\), \(d \in {\mathbb C}^m\), which depend on the parameters \(t\). This allows to obtain perturbation theory formulas for simple and conic points of the set \(\Lambda\) by using the ordinary implicit function theorem. These formulas are applied to the existence problem for the conic points of the eigenvalue set \(E(k)\) in the space of Bloch functions of the two-dimensional Schrödinger operator with a periodic potential with respect to a hexagonal lattice.