Localization for random quasi-one-dimensional models

Abstract

In this Review Article, we review the results of Anderson localization for different random families of operators that enter the framework of random quasi-one-dimensional models. We first recall what is Anderson localization from both physical and mathematical points of view. From the Anderson–Bernoulli conjecture in dimension 2, we justify the introduction of quasi-one-dimensional models. Then, we present different types of these models: the Schrödinger type in the discrete and continuous cases, the unitary type, the Dirac type, and the point interaction type. We present tools coming from the study of dynamical systems in dimension one: the transfer matrix formalism, the Lyapunov exponents, and the Furstenberg group. We then prove a criterion of localization for quasi-one-dimensional models of Schrödinger type involving only geometric and algebraic properties of the Furstenberg group. Then, we review results of localization, first for Schrödinger-type models and then for unitary type models. Each time, we reduce the question of localization to the study of the Furstenberg group and show how to use more and more refined algebraic criteria to prove the needed properties of this group. All the presented results for quasi-one-dimensional models of Schrödinger type include the case of Bernoulli randomness.