Trace singularities in obstacle scattering and the Poisson relation for the relative trace

We consider the case of scattering by several obstacles in $${\mathbb {R}}^d$$ R d , $$d \ge 2$$ d ≥ 2 for the Laplace operator $$\Delta $$ Δ with Dirichlet boundary conditions imposed on the obstacles. In the case of two obstacles, we have the Laplace operators $$\Delta _1$$ Δ 1 and $$\Delta _2$$ Δ 2 obtained by imposing Dirichlet boundary conditions only on one of the objects. The relative operator $$g(\Delta ) - g(\Delta _1) - g(\Delta _2) + g(\Delta _0)$$ g ( Δ ) - g ( Δ 1 ) - g ( Δ 2 ) + g ( Δ 0 ) was introduced in Hanisch, Waters and one of the authors in (A relative trace formula for obstacle scattering. arXiv:2002.07291, 2020) and shown to be trace-class for a large class of functions g, including certain functions of polynomial growth. When g is sufficiently regular at zero and fast decaying at infinity then, by the Birman–Krein formula, this trace can be computed from the relative spectral shift function $$\xi _\mathrm {rel}(\lambda ) = -\frac{1}{\pi } {\text {Im}}(\Xi (\lambda ))$$ ξ rel ( λ ) = - 1 π Im ( Ξ ( λ ) ) , where $$\Xi (\lambda )$$ Ξ ( λ ) is holomorphic in the upper half-plane and fast decaying. In this paper we study the wave-trace contributions to the singularities of the Fourier transform of $$\xi _\mathrm {rel}$$ ξ rel . In particular we prove that $${\hat{\xi }}_\mathrm {rel}$$ ξ ^ rel is real-analytic near zero and we relate the decay of $$\Xi (\lambda )$$ Ξ ( λ ) along the imaginary axis to the first wave-trace invariant of the shortest bouncing ball orbit between the obstacles. The function $$\Xi (\lambda )$$ Ξ ( λ ) is important in the physics of quantum fields as it determines the Casimir interactions between the objects.

On Bounded Finite Potent Operators on Arbitrary Hilbert Spaces

The aim of this work is to study the structure of bounded finite potent endomorphisms on Hilbert spaces. In particular, for these operators, an answer to the Invariant Subspace Problem is given and the main properties of its adjoint operator are offered. Moreover, for every bounded finite potent endomorphism we show that Tate’s trace coincides with the Leray trace and with the trace defined by R. Elliott for Riesz Trace Class operators.

Dual Convolution for the Affine Group of the Real Line

The Fourier algebra of the affine group of the real line has a natural identification, as a Banach space, with the space of trace-class operators on $$L^2({{\mathbb {R}}}^\times , dt/ |t|)$$ L 2 ( R × , d t / | t | ) . In this paper we study the “dual convolution product” of trace-class operators that corresponds to pointwise product in the Fourier algebra. Answering a question raised in work of Eymard and Terp, we provide an intrinsic description of this operation which does not rely on the identification with the Fourier algebra, and obtain a similar result for the connected component of this affine group. In both cases we construct explicit derivations on the corresponding Banach algebras, verifying the derivation identity directly without requiring the inverse Fourier transform. We also initiate the study of the analogous Banach algebra structure for trace-class operators on $$L^p({{\mathbb {R}}}^\times , dt/ |t|)$$ L p ( R × , d t / | t | ) for $$p\in (1,2)\cup (2,\infty )$$ p ∈ ( 1 , 2 ) ∪ ( 2 , ∞ ) .

Spectra of Jacobi Operators via Connection Coefficient Matrices

We address the computational spectral theory of Jacobi operators that are compact perturbations of the free Jacobi operator via the asymptotic properties of a connection coefficient matrix. In particular, for Jacobi operators that are finite-rank perturbations we show that the computation of the spectrum can be reduced to a polynomial root finding problem, from a polynomial that is derived explicitly from the entries of a connection coefficient matrix. A formula for the spectral measure of the operator is also derived explicitly from these entries. The analysis is extended to trace-class perturbations. We address issues of computability in the framework of the Solvability Complexity Index, proving that the spectrum of compact perturbations of the free Jacobi operator is computable in finite time with guaranteed error control in the Hausdorff metric on sets.