Explicit and Almost Explicit Spectral Calculations for Diffusion Operators

The diffusion operator $$H_D=-\frac12\frac d{dx}a\frac d{dx}-b\frac d{dx}=-\frac12\exp(-2B)\frac d{dx}a\exp(2B)\frac d{dx},$$ where $B(x)=\int_0^x\frac ba(y)dy$, defined either on $R^+=(0,\infty)$ with the Dirichlet boundary condition at $x=0$, or on $R$, can be realized as a self-adjoint operator with respect to the density $\exp(2Q(x))dx$. The operator is unitarily equivalent to the Schr\"odinger-type operator $H_S=-\frac12\frac d{dx}a\frac d{dx}+V_{b,a}$, where $V_{b,a}=\frac12(\frac{b^2}a+b')$. We obtain an explicit criterion for the existence of a compact resolvent and explicit formulas up to the multiplicative constant 4 for the infimum of the spectrum and for the infimum of the essential spectrum for these operators. We give some applications which show in particular how $\inf\sigma(H_D)$ scales when $a=\nu a_0$ and $b=\gamma b_0$, where $\nu$ and $\gamma$ are parameters, and $a_0$ and $b_0$ are chosen from certain classes of functions. We also give applications to self-adjoint, multi-dimensional diffusion operators.