Search

We study the point spectrum of a second order difference operator with complex potential on the half-line via Fredholm determinants of the corresponding Birman-Schwinger operator pencils, the Evans and the Jost functions. An application is given to instability of a generalization of the Kolmogorov flow for the Euler equation of ideal fluid on the two dimensional torus., Comment: Continuation of the work done in arXiv:1901.01367v3 and arXiv:2401.14037

We consider a diffusive Rosenzweig-MacArthur predator-prey model in the situation when the prey diffuses at the rate much smaller than that of the predator. In a certain parameter regime, the existence of fronts in the system is known: the underlying dynamical system in a singular limit is reduced to a scalar Fisher-KPP equation and the fronts supported by the full system are small perturbations of the Fisher-KPP fronts. The existence proof is based on application of the Geometric Singular Perturbation Theory with respect to two small parameters. This paper is focused on the stability of the fronts. We analyze the stability by means of energy estimates, exponential dichotomies, the Evans function calculation, and a technique that involves constructing the unstable augmented bundles. The energy estimates provide bounds on the unstable spectrum which depend on the small parameters of the system; the bounds are inversely proportional to these parameters. We further improve these estimates by showing that the eigenvalue problem is a small perturbation of some limiting (as the modulus of the eigenvalue parameter goes to infinity) system, and that the limiting system has exponential dichotomies. Persistence of the exponential dichotomies then leads to bounds uniform in the small parameters. The main novelty of this approach is related to the fact that the limit of the eigenvalue problem is not autonomous. We then use the concept of the unstable augmented bundles and by treating these as multiscale topological structures with respect to the same two small parameters consequently as in the existence proof, we show that the stability of the fronts is also governed by the scalar Fisher-KPP equation., Comment: 51 pages, 4 figures

For a second order difference equation that arises in the study of stability of unidirectional (generalized Kolmogorov) flows for the Euler equations of ideal fluids on the two dimensional torus, we relate the following five functions of the spectral parameter: the Fredholm determinants of the Birman-Schwinger operator pencils associated with the second order equation and the equivalent system of the first order equations; the Jost function constructed by means of the Jost solutions of the second order equation; the Evans function constructed by means of the matrix valued Jost solutions of the first order system, and, finally, to backward and forward continued fractions associated with the second order difference equation. We prove that all five functions are equal, and that their zeros are the discrete eigenvalues of the second order difference equation. We use this to improve an instability result for a generalization of the Kolmogorov (unidirectional) flow for the Euler equation on the 2D torus., Comment: Results in this paper improve and extend the results of arXiv:1901.01367v3 on the instability of unidirectional flows

Eigenvalue interlacing is a useful tool in linear algebra and spectral analysis. In its simplest form, the interlacing inequality states that a rank-one positive perturbation shifts each eigenvalue up, but not further than the next unperturbed eigenvalue. For different types of perturbations, this idea is known as Weyl interlacing, Cauchy interlacing, Dirichlet--Neumann bracketing and so on. We prove a sharp version of the interlacing inequalities for ``finite-dimensional perturbations in boundary conditions'', expressed as bounds on the spectral shift between two self-adjoint extensions of a fixed symmetric operator with finite and equal defect numbers. The bounds are given in terms of the Duistermaat index, a topological invariant describing the relative position of three Lagrangian planes in a symplectic space. Two of the Lagrangian planes describe the self-adjoint extensions being compared, while the third corresponds to the Friedrichs extension, which acts as a reference point. Along the way several auxiliary results are established, including one-sided continuity properties of the Duistermaat triple index, smoothness of the (abstract) Cauchy data space without unique continuation-type assumptions, and a formula for the Morse index of an extension of a non-negative symmetric operator., Comment: 35 pages, 3 figures; added another application of the main results, streamlined some proofs, fixed typos

We study families of analytic semigroups, acting in a Banach space, and depending on a parameter, and give sufficient conditions for existence of uniform with respect to the parameter norm bounds using spectral properties of the respective semigroup generators. In particular, we use estimates of the resolvent operators of the generators along vertical segments to estimate the growth/decay rate of the norm for the family of analytic semigroups. These results are applied to prove the Lyapunov linear stability of planar traveling waves of systems of reaction-diffusion equations, and the bidomain equation, important in electrophysiology., Comment: 34 pages

We use the Maslov index to study the spectrum of a class of linear Hamiltonian differential operators. We provide a lower bound on the number of positive real eigenvalues, which includes a contribution to the Maslov index from a non-regular crossing. A close study of the eigenvalue curves, which represent the evolution of the eigenvalues as the domain is shrunk or expanded, yields formulas for their concavity at the non-regular crossing in terms of the corresponding Jordan chains. This, along with homotopy techniques, enables the computation of the Maslov index at such a crossing. We apply our theory to study the spectral (in)stability of standing waves in the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation on a compact spatial interval. We derive new stability results in the spirit of the Jones--Grillakis instability theorem and the Vakhitov--Kolokolov criterion, both originally formulated on the real line. A fundamental difference upon passing from the real line to the compact interval is the loss of translational invariance, in which case the zero eigenvalue of the linearised operator is geometrically simple. Consequently, the stability results differ depending on the boundary conditions satisfied by the wave. We compare our lower bound to existing results involving constrained eigenvalue counts, finding a direct relationship between the correction factors found therein and the objects of our analysis, including the second-order Maslov crossing form., Comment: Version 2, April 2023. 50 pages, 8 figures

The Evans function is a well known tool for locating spectra of differential operators in one spatial dimension. In this paper we construct a multidimensional analogue as the modified Fredholm determinant of a ratio of Dirichlet-to-Robin operators on the boundary. This gives a tool for studying the eigenvalue counting functions of second-order elliptic operators that need not be self-adjoint. To do this we use local representation theory for meromorphic operator-valued pencils, and relate the algebraic multiplicities of eigenvalues of elliptic operators to those of the Robin-to-Robin and Robin-to-Dirichlet operator pencils. In the self-adjoint case we relate our construction to the Maslov index, another well known tool in the spectral theory of differential operators. This gives new insight into the Maslov index and allows us to obtain crucial monotonicity results by complex analytic methods., Comment: 61 pages, comments welcome!

In this paper we develop certain aspects of perturbation theory for self-adjoint operators subject to small variations of their domains. We use the abstract theory of boundary triplets to quantify such perturbations and give the second order asymptotic analysis for resolvents, spectral projections, discrete eigenvalues of the corresponding self-adjoint operators. In particular, we derive explicit formulas for the first variation and the Hessian of the eigenvalue curves bifurcating from a discrete eigenvalue of an unperturbed operator. An application is given to a matrix valued Robin Laplacian and more general Robin-type self-adjoint extensions.

This work offers a new prospective on asymptotic perturbation theory for varying self-adjoint extensions of symmetric operators. Employing symplectic formulation of self-adjointness we obtain a new version of Krein formula for resolvent difference which facilitates asymptotic analysis of resolvent operators via first order expansion for the family of Lagrangian planes associated with perturbed operators. Specifically, we derive a Riccati-type differential equation and the first order asymptotic expansion for resolvents of self-adjoint extensions determined by smooth one-parameter families of Lagrangian planes. This asymptotic perturbation theory yields a symplectic version of the abstract Kato selection theorem and Hadamard-Rellich-type variational formula for slopes of multiple eigenvalue curves bifurcating from an eigenvalue of the unperturbed operator. The latter, in turn, gives a general infinitesimal version of the celebrated formula equating the spectral flow of a path of self-adjoint extensions and the Maslov index of the corresponding path of Lagrangian planes. Applications are given to quantum graphs, periodic Kronig-Penney model, elliptic second order partial differential operators with Robin boundary conditions, and physically relevant heat equations with thermal conductivity.

We establish the existence and regularity properties of a monodromy operator for the linearization of the cubic-quintic complex Ginzburg-Landau equation about a periodically-stationary (breather) solution. We derive a formula for the essential spectrum of the monodromy operator in terms of that of the associated asymptotic linear differential operator. This result is obtained using the theory of analytic semigroups under the assumption that the Ginzburg-Landau equation includes a spectral filtering (diffusion) term. We discuss applications to the stability of periodically-stationary pulses in ultrafast fiber lasers., Comment: 16 pages, comments welcome!! Reviewer comments incorporated!

It was recently shown by the authors that a semilinear elliptic equation can be represented as an infinite-dimensional dynamical system in terms of boundary data on a shrinking one-parameter family of domains. The resulting system is ill-posed, in the sense that solutions do not typically exist forward or backward in time. In this paper we consider a radial family of domains and prove that the linearized system admits an exponential dichotomy, with the unstable subspace corresponding to the boundary data of weak solutions to the linear PDE. This generalizes the spatial dynamics approach, which applies to infinite cylindrical (channel) domains, and also generalizes previous work on radial domains as we impose no symmetry assumptions on the equation or its solutions.

A characterization of a semilinear elliptic partial differential equation (PDE) on a bounded domain in $\mathbb{R}^n$ is given in terms of an infinite-dimensional dynamical system. The dynamical system is on the space of boundary data for the PDE. This is a novel approach to elliptic problems that enables the use of dynamical systems tools in studying the corresponding PDE. The dynamical system is ill-posed, meaning solutions do not exist forwards or backwards in time for generic initial data. We offer a framework in which this ill-posed system can be analyzed. This can be viewed as generalizing the theory of spatial dynamics, which applies to the case of an infinite cylindrical domain., Comment: v2: minor corrections and notational changes

We study stability of unidirectional flows for the linearized 2D $\alpha$-Euler equations on the torus. The unidirectional flows are steady states whose vorticity is given by Fourier modes corresponding to a vector $\mathbf p \in \mathbb Z^{2}$. We linearize the $\alpha$-Euler equation and write the linearized operator $L_{B} $ in $\ell^{2}(\mathbb Z^{2})$ as a direct sum of one-dimensional difference operators $L_{B,\mathbf q}$ in $\ell^{2}(\mathbb Z)$ parametrized by some vectors $\mathbf q\in\mathbb Z^2$ such that the set $\{\mathbf q +n \mathbf p:n \in \mathbb Z\}$ covers the entire grid $\mathbb Z^{2}$. The set $\{\mathbf q +n \mathbf p:n \in \mathbb Z\}$ can have zero, one, or two points inside the disk of radius $\|\mathbf p\|$. We consider the case where the set $\{\mathbf q +n \mathbf p:n \in \mathbb Z\}$ has exactly one point in the open disc of radius $\mathbf p$. We show that unidirectional flows that satisfy this condition are linearly unstable. Our main result is an instability theorem that provides a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a positive eigenvalue to the operator $L_{B,\mathbf q}$ in terms of equations involving certain continued fractions. Moreover, we are also able to provide a complete characterization of the corresponding eigenvector. The proof is based on the use of continued fractions techniques expanding upon the ideas of Friedlander and Howard., Comment: 1 figure

We show that the spectral flow of a one-parameter family of Schr\"odinger operators on a metric graph is equal to the Maslov index of a path of Lagrangian subspaces describing the vertex conditions. In addition, we derive an Hadamard-type formula for the derivatives of the eigenvalue curves via the Maslov crossing form.

We address the question of convergence of Schr\"odinger operators on metric graphs with general self-adjoint vertex conditions as lengths of some of graph's edges shrink to zero. We determine the limiting operator and study convergence in a suitable norm resolvent sense. It is noteworthy that, as edge lengths tend to zero, standard Sobolev-type estimates break down, making convergence fail for some graphs. We use a combination of functional-analytic bounds on the edges of the graph and Lagrangian geometry considerations for the vertex conditions to establish a sufficient condition for convergence. This condition encodes an intricate balance between the topology of the graph and its vertex data. In particular, it does not depend on the potential, on the differences in the rates of convergence of the shrinking edges, or on the lengths of the unaffected edges.

We study spectral instability of steady states to the linearized 2D Euler equations on the torus written in vorticity form via certain Birman-Schwinger type operators $K_{\lambda}(\mu)$ and their associated 2-modified perturbation determinants $\mathcal D(\lambda,\mu)$. Our main result characterizes the existence of an unstable eigenvalue to the linearized vorticity operator $L_{\rm vor}$ in terms of zeros of the 2-modified Fredholm determinant $\mathcal D(\lambda,0)=\det_{2}(I-K_{\lambda}(0))$ associated with the Hilbert Schmidt operator $K_{\lambda}(\mu)$ for $\mu=0$. As a consequence, we are also able to provide an alternative proof to an instability theorem first proved by Zhiwu Lin which relates existence of an unstable eigenvalue for $L_{\rm vor}$ to the number of negative eigenvalues of a limiting elliptic dispersion operator $A_{0}$.

We derive analogues of the classical Rayleigh, Fjortoft and Arnold stability and instability theorems in the context of the 2D $\alpha$-Euler equations.

In this paper we prove that a class of non self-adjoint second order differential operators acting in cylinders $\Omega\times\mathbb R\subseteq\mathbb R^{d+1}$ have only real discrete spectrum located to the right of the right most point of the essential spectrum. We describe the essential spectrum using the limiting properties of the potential. To track the discrete spectrum we use spatial dynamics and bi-semigroups of linear operators to estimate the decay rate of eigenfunctions associated to isolated eigenvalues.

We study the planar front solution for a class of reaction diffusion equations in multidimensional space in the case when the essential spectrum of the linearization in the direction of the front touches the imaginary axis. At the linear level, the spectrum is stabilized by using an exponential weight. A-priori estimates for the nonlinear terms of the equation governing the evolution of the perturbations of the front are obtained when perturbations belong to the intersection of the exponentially weighted space with the original space without a weight. These estimates are then used to show that in the original norm, initially small perturbations to the front remain bounded, while in the exponentially weighted norm, they algebraically decay in time.

In a scalar reaction-diffusion equation, it is known that the stability of a steady state can be determined from the Maslov index, a topological invariant that counts the state's critical points. In particular, this implies that pulse solutions are unstable. We extend this picture to pulses in reaction-diffusion systems with gradient nonlinearity. In particular, we associate a Maslov index to any asymptotically constant state, generalizing existing definitions of the Maslov index for homoclinic orbits. It is shown that this index equals the number of unstable eigenvalues for the linearized evolution equation. Finally, we use a symmetry argument to show that any pulse solution must have nonzero Maslov index, and hence be unstable., Comment: 19 pages, 1 figure. To appear in Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. A

We extend Selgrade's Theorem, Morse spectrum, and related concepts to the setting of linear skew product semiflows on a separable Banach bundle. We recover a characterization, well-known in the finite-dimensional setting, of exponentially separated subbundles as attractor-repeller pairs for the associated semiflow on the projective bundle., Comment: 26 pages

We consider second order elliptic differential operators on a bounded Lipschitz domain $\Omega$. Firstly, we establish a natural one-to-one correspondence between their self-adjoint extensions, with domains of definition containing in $H^1(\Omega)$, and Lagrangian planes in $H^{1/2}(\partial\Omega)\times H^{-1/2}(\partial\Omega)$. Secondly, we derive a formula relating the spectral flow of the one-parameter families of such operators to the Maslov index, the topological invariant counting the signed number of conjugate points of paths of Lagrangian planes in $H^{1/2}(\partial\Omega)\times H^{-1/2}(\partial\Omega)$. Furthermore, we compute the Morse index, the number of negative eigenvalues, in terms of the Maslov index for several classes of the second order operators: the $\vec{\theta}-$periodic Schr\"odinger operators on a period cell $Q\subset \mathbb{R}^n$, the elliptic operators with Robin-type boundary conditions, and the abstract self-adjoint extensions of the Schr\"odinger operators on star-shaped domains. Our work is built on the techniques recently developed by B.Boo{\ss}-Bavnbek, K. Furutani, and C. Zhu, and extends the scope of validity of their spectral flow formula by incorporating the self-adjoint extensions of the second order operators with domains in the first order Sobolev space $H^1(\Omega)$. In addition, we generalize the results concerning relations between the Maslov and Morse indices quite recently obtained by G. Cox, J. Deng, C. Jones, J. Marzuola, A. Sukhtayev and the authors. Finally, we describe and study a link between the theory of abstract boundary triples and the Lagrangian description of self-adjoint extensions of abstract symmetric operators., Comment: 45 pages

Assuming a symmetric potential that approaches constant endstates with a sufficient asymptotic rate, we relate the Maslov and Morse indices for Schr\"odinger operators on $\mathbb{R}$. In particular, we show that with our choice of convention, the Morse index is precisely the negative of the Maslov index.

We discuss a definition of the Maslov index for Lagrangian pairs on $\mathbb{R}^{2n}$ based on spectral flow, and develop many of its salient properties. We provide two applications to illustrate how our approach leads to a straightforward analysis of the relationship between the Maslov index and the Morse index for Sch\"odinger operators on $[0,1]$ and $\mathbb{R}$.