One-dimensional Schrödinger operator with decaying white noise potential

Abstract

In this paper, we consider a random one-dimensional Schrödinger operator Hω on the half line which has, as its potential term, Gaussian white noise multiplied by a decaying factor. Although the potential term is not an ordinary function, but a distribution, it is possible to realize Hω as a symmetric operator in L2([0, ∞); dt) as was pointed out by the present author [Minami, Lect. Notes Math. 1299, 298 (1986)], and it will be shown that Hω is actually self-adjoint with probability one. When the white noise in Hω is replaced by random functions of a specific type, [Kotani and Ushiroya, Commun. Math. Phys. 115, 247 (1988)] made a precise analysis of the positive part of the spectrum. According to them, if the decaying factor is not square integrable, the positive part of the spectrum typically consists of singular continuous and dense pure-point parts, which are separated by a threshold number. On the other hand, the positive part of the spectrum is purely absolutely continuous when the decaying factor is square integrable. In this work, we shall focus on the case of square integrable decaying factor, and prove the absolute continuity of the positive part of the spectrum of Hω. We shall further prove that the negative part of the spectrum of Hω is discrete, with no accumulation points other than 0.