English

Classical irregular blocks, Hill's equation and PT-symmetric periodic complex potentials

High Energy Physics - Theory 2016-08-24 v1

Abstract

The Schroedinger eigenvalue problems for the Whittaker-Hill potential Q2(x)=12h2cos4x+4hμcos2xQ_{2}(x)=\tfrac{1}{2} h^2\cos4x+4h\mu\cos2x and the periodic complex potential Q1(x)=14h2e4ix+2h2cos2xQ_{1}(x)=\tfrac{1}{4}h^2{\rm e}^{-4ix}+2h^2\cos2x are studied using their realizations in two-dimensional conformal field theory (2dCFT). It is shown that for the weak coupling (small) hRh\in\mathbb{R} and non-integer Floquet parameter νZ\nu\notin\mathbb{Z} spectra of hamiltonians Hi ⁣= ⁣d2/dx2+Qi(x)H_{i}\!=\!-{\rm d}^2/{\rm d}x^2 + Q_{i}(x), i=1,2i=1,2 and corresponding two linearly independent eigenfunctions are given by the classical limit of the "single flavor" and "two flavors" (Nf=1,2N_f=1,2) irregular conformal blocks. It is known that complex non-hermitian hamiltonians which are PT-symmetric (= invariant under simultaneous parity P and time reversal T transformations) can have real eigenvalues. The hamiltonian H1H_{1} is PT-symmetric for h,xRh,x\in\mathbb{R}. It is found that H1H_{1} has a real spectrum in the weak coupling region for νRZ\nu\in\mathbb{R}\setminus\mathbb{Z}. This fact in an elementary way follows from a definition of the Nf=1N_f=1 classical irregular block. Thus, H1H_{1} can serve as yet another new model for testing postulates of PT-symmetric quantum mechanics.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1604.03574,
  title  = {Classical irregular blocks, Hill's equation and PT-symmetric periodic complex potentials},
  author = {Marcin Piatek and Artur R. Pietrykowski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1604.03574},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

23 pages, 1 figure

R2 v1 2026-06-22T13:30:50.609Z