Resonant motions in the presence of degeneracies for quasi-periodically perturbed systems

We consider one-dimensional systems in the presence of a quasi-periodic perturbation, in the analytical setting, and study the problem of existence of quasi-periodic solutions which are resonant with the frequency vector of the perturbation. We assume that the unperturbed system is locally integrable and anisochronous, and that the frequency vector of the perturbation satisfies the Bryuno condition. Existence of resonant solutions is related to the zeros of a suitable function, called the Melnikov function—by analogy with the periodic case. We show that, if the Melnikov function has a zero of odd order and under some further condition on the sign of the perturbation parameter, then there exists at least one resonant solution which continues an unperturbed solution. If the Melnikov function is identically zero then one can push perturbation theory up to the order where a counterpart of Melnikov function appears and does not vanish identically: if such a function has a zero of odd order and a suitable positiveness condition is met, again the same persistence result is obtained. If the system is Hamiltonian, then the procedure can be indefinitely iterated and no positiveness condition must be required: as a byproduct, the result follows that at least one resonant quasi-periodic solution always exists with no assumption on the perturbation. Such a solution can be interpreted as a (parabolic) lower-dimensional torus.

ACCURACY OF APPROXIMATE EIGENSTATES

Besides perturbation theory, which requires the knowledge of the exact unperturbed solution, variational techniques represent the main tool for any investigation of the eigenvalue problem of some semibounded operator H in quantum theory. For a reasonable choice of the employed trial subspace of the domain of H, the lowest eigenvalues of H can be located with acceptable precision whereas the trial-subspace vectors corresponding to these eigenvalues approximate, in general, the exact eigenstates of H with much less accuracy. Accordingly, various measures for the accuracy of approximate eigenstates derived by variational techniques are scrutinized. In particular, the matrix elements of the commutator of the operator H and (suitably chosen) different operators with respect to degenerate approximate eigenstates of H obtained by the variational methods are proposed as new criteria for the accuracy of variational eigenstates. These considerations are applied to that Hamiltonian the eigenvalue problem of which defines the spinless Salpeter equation. This bound-state wave equation may be regarded as the most straightforward relativistic generalization of the usual nonrelativistic Schrödinger formalism, and is frequently used to describe, e.g. spin-averaged mass spectra of bound states of quarks.

On perturbations of a translationally-invariant differential equation

SynopsisWe study certain perturbations of the differential equation Δu − u + up = 0 on all of n-dimensional Euclidean space. Conditions are obtained which ensure the existence of a solution to the perturbed equation near a given solution to the unperturbed equation. We have to overcome degeneracy of the unperturbed solution and lack of smooth dependence on the perturbation parameter. An abstract version of the argument is sketched in a functional-analytic setting related toequivariant bifurcation theory. We consider also a smooth perturbation with several parameters and study the singularities of the mapping which maps each solution to its associated parameters.