Abstract
Let
$$\begin{array}{}
\displaystyle
Lf(x)=-\frac{1}{\omega(x)}\sum_{i,j}^{}\partial_{i}(a_{ij}(\cdot)\partial_{j}f)(x)+V(x)f(x)
\end{array}$$
be the degenerate Schrödinger operator, where ω is a weight from the Muckenhoupt class A2, V is a nonnegative potential that belongs to a certain reverse Hölder class with respect to the measure ω(x)dx. For such an operator we define the area integral
$\begin{array}{}
\displaystyle
S^{L}_h
\end{array}$ associated with the heat semigroup and obtain the area integral characterization of
$\begin{array}{}
\displaystyle
H^{1}_{L}
\end{array}$, which is the Hardy space associated with L.