On the evaluation of the norm of an integral operator associated with the stability of one-.pdf

a r X i v : m a t h / 9 8 0 1 0 7 4 v 1 [ m a t h .S P ] 1 5 J a n 1 9 9 8 On the evaluation of the norm of an integral operator associated with the stability of one-electron atoms V.I.Burenkov and W.D.Evans February 1, 2008 Abstract The norm of an integral operator occurring in the partial wave decom- position of an operator B introduced by Brown and Ravenhall in a model for relativistic one-electron atoms is determined. The result implies that B is non-negative and has no eigenvalue at 0 when the nuclear charge does not exceed a specified critical value. 1 Introduction The operator referred to in the title is defined on L2(0,∞) by (Tφ)(x) := ∫ ∞ 0 t(x, y)φ(y)dy, 0 x ∞, (1. 1) where, t(x, y) = 12 ?? ? √√ x2 + 1 + 1 x2 + 1 g0(x/y) √√ y2 + 1 + 1 y2 + 1 + √√ x2 + 1? 1 x2 + 1 g1(x/y) √√ y2 + 1? 1 y2 + 1 ?? ? (1. 2) with g0(u) = log ∣∣∣∣u+ 1u? 1 ∣∣∣∣ , g1(u) = 12 ( u+ 1 u ) log ∣∣∣∣u+ 1u? 1 ∣∣∣∣? 1, u 0. To describe its role in relativistic stability, we require some background informa- tion. It is well-known that the Dirac operator describing relativistic one-particle 1 systems is unbounded below, and that problems occur when it is extended as a model for multi-particle systems. The root of the problem is that the Dirac operator describes two different particles, namely electrons and positrons. In the paper [2] Brown and Ravenhall overcame this difficulty by projecting onto the electron subspaces only. Specifically, for a relativistic electron in the field of its nucleus, their operator is B := Λ+(D0 ? e 2Z | · | )Λ+. (1. 3) The notation in (1.3) is as follows: ? D0 is the free Dirac operator D0 = cα · h? i ?+mc2β ≡ 3∑ j=1 c h? i αj ? ?xj +mc2β where α := (α1, α2, α3) and β are the Dirac matrices given by αj = ( 02 σj σj 02 ) , β = ( 12 02 02 ?12 ) with 02, 12 the zero and unit 2× 2 matrices respectively, and σj the Pauli matrices σ1 = ( 0 1 1 0 ) , σ2 = ( 0 ?i i 0 ) , σ3 = ( 1 0 0 ?1 ) ; ? Λ+ denotes the projection of L2(R3)?C4 onto the positive spectral sub