Schrödinger operators on regular metric trees with long range potentials: weak coupling behavior (Q846973)

The paper is concerned with the weak coupling behaviour of the bottom of the spectrum of a selfadjoint Schrödinger operator with Neumann boundary conditions on a regular \(d\)-dimensional metric tree. For a Schrödinger operator \(-\Delta-\alpha V\) in \(\mathbb R^n\) it is well known that the weak coupling asymptotics depend on the dimension \(n\) of the underlying space. Analogously, in the case of a metric tree \(\Gamma\) it was shown by one of the authors in the earlier publication [\textit{H. Kovarik}, SIAM J. Math. Anal. 39, No.~4, 1135--1149 (2007; Zbl 1156.34074)] that the influence of potentials \(V\) (with sufficient fast decay) on the behaviour of the ground state \(E_1(\alpha)\) is given by \[ E_1(\alpha)\,\sim\,\left(\alpha \int_\Gamma V\,dx\right)^{\frac{2}{2-d}}\text{ as }\alpha\rightarrow 0, \] where \(d\in [1,2)\) is the dimension of the tree. In the present paper the interplay between the global structure of the tree and the decay of \(V\) is studied. One of the main results states that if \(V\) decays as \(x^{-\gamma}\) with \(1<\gamma\leq d\leq 2\), \(\gamma\not=2\), then the asymptotics of \(E_1(\alpha)\) is fully determined by the behaviour of \(V\) at \(\infty\).