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On the reality of the eigenvalues for a class of PT-symmetric oscillators

Mathematical Physics 2009-11-07 v2 High Energy Physics - Theory math.MP

Abstract

We study the eigenvalue problem -u"(z)-[(iz)^m+P(iz)]u(z)=\lambda u(z) with the boundary conditions that u(z) decays to zero as z tends to infinity along the rays \arg z=-\frac{\pi}{2}\pm \frac{2\pi}{m+2}, where P(z)=a_1 z^{m-1}+a_2 z^{m-2}+...+a_{m-1} z is a real polynomial and m\geq 2. We prove that if for some 1\leq j\leq\frac{m}{2}, we have (j-k)a_k\geq 0 for all 1\leq k\leq m-1, then the eigenvalues are all positive real. We then sharpen this to a slightly larger class of polynomial potentials. In particular, this implies that the eigenvalues are all positive real for the potentials \alpha iz^3+\beta z^2+\gamma iz when \alpha,\beta and \gamma are all real with \alpha\not=0 and \alpha \gamma \geq 0, and with the boundary conditions that u(z) decays to zero as z tends to infinity along the positive and negative real axes. This verifies a conjecture of Bessis and Zinn-Justin.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math-ph/0201013,
  title  = {On the reality of the eigenvalues for a class of PT-symmetric oscillators},
  author = {K. C. Shin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math-ph/0201013},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

22 pages, one figure. Reason for update--in order to more clearly explain which parts of the proof follow the earlier work of Dorey, Dunning and Tateo. Main change on page 3, minor changes on page 12 and 18