Singular spectral shift function for Schrödinger operators

Abstract

Let $H_0 = -Δ+ V_0(x)$ be a Schroedinger operator on $L_2(\mathbb{R}^ν),$ $ν=1,2,$ or 3, where $V_0(x)$ is a bounded measurable real-valued function on $\mathbb{R}^ν.$ Let $V$ be an operator of multiplication by a bounded integrable real-valued function $V(x)$ and put $H_r = H_0+rV$ for real $r.$ We show that the associated spectral shift function (SSF) $ξ$ admits a natural decomposition into the sum of absolutely continuous $ξ^{(a)}$ and singular $ξ^{(s)}$ SSFs. This is a special case of an analogous result for resolvent comparable pairs of self-adjoint operators, which generalises the known case of a trace class perturbation while also simplifying its proof. We present two proofs -- one short and one long -- which we consider to have value of their own. The long proof along the way reframes some classical results from the perturbation theory of self-adjoint operators, including the existence and completeness of the wave operators and the Birman-Krein formula relating the scattering matrix and the SSF. The two proofs demonstrate the equality of the singular SSF with two a priori different but intrinsically integer-valued functions: the total resonance index and the singular $μ$-invariant.