Schrödinger operators with $δ$-potentials supported on unbounded Lipschitz hypersurfaces

Abstract

In this note we consider the self-adjoint Schrödinger operator $\mathsf{A}_α$ in $L^2(\mathbb{R}^d)$, $d\geq 2$, with a $δ$-potential supported on a Lipschitz hypersurface $Σ\subseteq\mathbb{R}^d$ of strength $α\in L^p(Σ)+L^\infty(Σ)$. We show the uniqueness of the ground state and, under some additional conditions on the coefficient $α$ and the hypersurface $Σ$, we determine the essential spectrum of $\mathsf{A}_α$. In the special case that $Σ$ is a hyperplane we obtain a Birman-Schwinger principle with a relativistic Schrödinger operator as Birman-Schwinger operator. As an application we prove an optimization result for the bottom of the spectrum of $\mathsf{A}_α$.