English

Asymptotics of determinants of discrete Schr\"odinger operators

Spectral Theory 2016-09-19 v2

Abstract

We consider the asymptotics of the determinants of large discrete Schr\"odinger operators, i.e. "discrete Laplacian ++ diagonal": Tn(f)=[δj,j+1+δj+1,j]+\mboxdiag(f(1n),f(2n),,f(nn))T_n(f) = -[\delta_{j,j+1}+\delta_{j+1,j}] + \mbox{diag}\left(f\left(\frac{1}{n}\right), f\left(\frac{2}{n}\right),\dots, f\left(\frac{n}{n}\right)\right) We extend a result of M. Kac, who found a formula for limndet(Tn(f))G(f)n\lim_{n\rightarrow\infty} \frac{\det(T_n(f))}{G(f)^n} in terms of the values of ff, where G(f)G(f) is a constant. We extend this result in two ways: First, we consider shifting the index: Let Tn(f;ε)=[δj,j+1+δj+1,j]+\mboxdiag(f(εn),f(1+εn),,f(n1+εn))T_n(f;\varepsilon) = -[\delta_{j,j+1}+\delta_{j+1,j}] + \mbox{diag}\left(f\left(\frac{\varepsilon}{n}\right), f\left(\frac{1+ \varepsilon}{n}\right), \dots, f\left(\frac{n-1+ \varepsilon}{n}\right)\right) We calculate limdetTn(f;ε)/G(f)n\lim \det T_n(f;\varepsilon)/G(f)^n and show that this limit can be any positive number by shifting ε\varepsilon, even though the asymptotic eigenvalue distribution of Tn(f;ε)T_n(f;\varepsilon) does not depend on ε\varepsilon. Secondly, we derive a formula for the asymptotics of detTn(f)/G(f)n\det T_n(f)/G(f)^n when ff has jump discontinuities. In this case the asymptotics depend on the fractional part of cnc n, where cc is a point of discontinuity.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1609.04125,
  title  = {Asymptotics of determinants of discrete Schr\"odinger operators},
  author = {Alain Bourget and Tyler McMillen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.04125},
  year   = {2016}
}