We consider the Laplacian on a rooted metric tree graph with branching number $ K \geq 2 $ and random edge lengths given by independent and identically distributed bounded variables. Our main result is the stability of the absolutely continuous spectrum for weak disorder. A useful tool in the discussion is a function which expresses a directional transmission amplitude to infinity and forms a generalization of the Weyl-Titchmarsh function to trees. The proof of the main result rests on upper bounds on the range of fluctuations of this quantity in the limit of weak disorder.
We give sufficient conditions for the presence of the absolutely continuous spectrum of a Schrödinger operator on a regular rooted tree without loops (also called regular Bethe lattice or Cayley tree).
We provide a simplified version of the geometric method given by Froese, Hasler and Spitzer and use it to prove the existence of absolutely continuous spectrum for a Cayley tree of arbitrary degree k.
We will consider cross products of finite graphs with a class of trees that have arbitrarily but finitely long line segments, such as the Fibonacci tree. Such cross products are called tree-strips. We prove that for small disorder random Schrödinger operators on such tree-strips have purely absolutely continuous spectrum in a certain set.
A tree-strip of finite cone type is the product of a tree of finite cone type with a finite set. We consider random Schrödinger operators on these tree strips, similar to the Anderson model. We prove that for small disorder the spectrum is almost surely, purely, absolutely continuous in a certain set.
We consider multi-type Galton Watson trees that are close to a tree of finite cone type in distribution. Moreover, we impose that each vertex has at least one forward neighbor. Then, we show that the spectrum of the Laplace operator exhibits almost surely a purely absolutely continuous component which is included in the absolutely continuous spectrum of the tree of finite cone type.
We consider standard subordinacy theory for general Sturm--Liouville operators and give criteria when boundedness of solutions implies that no subordinate solutions exist. As applications, we prove a Weidmann-type result for general Sturm--Liouville operators and investigate the absolutely continuous spectrum of radially symmetric quantum trees.
We study the spectrum of random operators on a large class of trees. These trees have finitely many cone types and they can be constructed by a substitution rule. The random operators are perturbations of Laplace type operators either by random potentials or by random hopping terms, i.e., perturbations of the off-diagonal elements. We prove stability of arbitrary large parts of the absolutely continuous spectrum for sufficiently small but extensive disorder.
On an infinite, radial metric tree graph we consider the corresponding Laplacian equipped with self-adjoint vertex conditions from a large class including $δ$- and weighted $δ'$-couplings. Assuming the numbers of different edge lengths, branching numbers and different coupling conditions to be finite, we prove that the presence of absolutely continuous spectrum implies that the sequence of geometric data of the tree as well as the coupling conditions are eventually periodic. On the other hand, we provide examples of self-adjoint, non-periodic couplings which admit absolutely continuous spectru…
We consider random Schrödinger operators on tree graphs and prove absolutely continuous spectrum at small disorder for two models. The first model is the usual binary tree with certain strongly correlated random potentials. These potentials are of interest since for complete correlation they exhibit localization at all disorders. In the second model we change the tree graph by adding all possible edges to the graph inside each sphere, with weights proportional to the number of points in the sphere.
We study the spectra of quantum trees of finite cone type. These are quantum graphs whose geometry has a certain homogeneity, and which carry a finite set of edge lengths, coupling constants and potentials on the edges. We show the spectrum consists of bands of purely absolutely continuous spectrum, along with a discrete set of eigenvalues. Afterwards, we study random perturbations of such trees, at the level of edge length and coupling, and prove the stability of pure AC spectrum, along with resolvent estimates.
We give a new proof of a version of Klein's theorem on the existence of absolutely continuous spectrum for the Anderson model on the Bethe Lattice at weak disorder.
We prove the almost sure existence of absolutely continuous spectrum at low disorder for the Anderson model on the simplest example of a product of a regular tree with a finite graph. This graph contains loops of unbounded size.
We discuss the dynamical implications of the recent proof that for a quantum particle in a random potential on a regular tree graph absolutely continuous spectrum occurs non-perturbatively through rare fluctuation-enabled resonances. The main result is spelled in the title.
The subject of this work are random Schroedinger operators on regular rooted tree graphs $\T$ with stochastically homogeneous disorder. The operators are of the form $H_λ(ω) = T + U + λV(ω)$ acting in $\ell^2(\T)$, with $T $ the adjacency matrix, $U$ a radially periodic potential, and $V(ω)$ a random potential. This includes the only class of homogeneously random operators for which it was proven that the spectrum of $H_λ(ω)$ exhibits an absolutely continuous (ac) component; a results established by A. Klein for weak disorder, in case U=0 and $V(ω)$ given by iid random variables on $\T$. Our m…
The subject of the paper are Schrödinger operators on tree graphs which are radial having the branching number $b_n$ at all the vertices at the distance $t_n$ from the root. We consider a family of coupling conditions at the vertices characterized by $(b_n-1)^2+4$ real parameters. We prove that if the graph is sparse so that there is a subsequence of $\{t_{n+1}-t_n\}$ growing to infinity, in the absence of the potential the absolutely continuous spectrum is empty for a large subset of these vertex couplings, but on the the other hand, there are cases when the spectrum of such a Schrödinger ope…
We study a class of rooted trees with a substitution type structure. These trees are not necessarily regular, but exhibit a lot of symmetries. We consider nearest neighbor operators which reflect the symmetries of the trees. The spectrum of such operators is proven to be purely absolutely continuous and to consist of finitely many intervals. We further investigate stability of the absolutely continuous spectrum under perturbations by sufficiently small potentials. On the one hand, we look at a class of deterministic potentials which include radial symmetric ones. The absolutely continuous spec…
We study basic spectral features of graph Laplacians associated with a class of rooted trees which contains all regular trees. Trees in this class can be generated by substitution processes. Their spectra are shown to be purely absolutely continuous and to consist of finitely many bands. The main result gives stability of absolutely continuous spectrum under sufficiently small radially label symmetric perturbations for non regular trees in this class. In sharp contrast, the absolutely continuous spectrum can be completely destroyed by arbitrary small radially label symmetric perturbations for …
We present general principles for the preservation of a.c. spectrum under weak perturbations. The Schrodinger operators on the strip and on the Caley tree (Bethe lattice) are considered.
We review a geometric approach to proving absolutely continuous (ac) spectrum for random and deterministic Schrödinger operators developed in \cite{FHS1,FHS2,FHS3,FHS4}. We study decaying potentials in one dimension and present a simplified proof of ac spectrum of the Anderson model on trees. The latter implies ac spectrum for a percolation model on trees. Finally, we introduce certain loop tree models which lead to some interesting open problems.
The Bethe Strip of width $m$ is the cartesian product $\B\times\{1,...,m\}$, where $\B$ is the Bethe lattice (Cayley tree). We prove that Anderson models on the Bethe strip have "extended states" for small disorder. More precisely, we consider Anderson-like Hamiltonians $\;H_λ=\frac12 Δ\otimes 1 + 1 \otimes A + λ\Vv$ on a Bethe strip with connectivity $K \geq 2$, where $A$ is an $m\times m$ symmetric matrix, $\Vv$ is a random matrix potential, and $λ$ is the disorder parameter. Given any closed interval $I\subset (-\sqrt{K}+a_{\mathrm{max}},\sqrt{K}+a_{\mathrm{min}})$, where $a_{\mathrm{min}}$…
In this paper we consider two classes of random Hamiltonians on $L^2(\RR^d)$ one that imitates the lattice case and the other a Schrödinger operator with non-decaying, non-sparse potential both of which exhibit a.c. spectrum. In the former case we also know the existence of dense pure point spectrum for some disorder thus exhibiting spectral transition valid for the Bethe lattice and expected for the Anderson model in higher dimension.
We prove several results showing that absolutely continuous spectrum for the Laplacian on radial trees is a rare event. In particular, we show that metric trees with unbounded edges have purely singular spectrum and that generically (in the sense of Baire) radial trees have purely singular continuous spectrum.
We consider radial tree extensions of one-dimensional quasi-periodic Schroedinger operators and establish the stability of their absolutely continuous spectra under weak but extensive perturbations by a random potential. The sufficiency criterion for that is the existence of Bloch-Floquet states for the one dimensional operator corresponding to the radial problem.
Our recently established criterion for the formation of extended states on tree graphs in the presence of disorder is shown to have the surprising implication that for bounded random potentials, as in the Anderson model, there is no transition to a spectral regime of Anderson localization, in the form usually envisioned, unless the disorder is strong enough.
Hölder continuity, $|N_λ(E)-N_λ(E')|\le C |E-E'|^α$, with a constant $C$ independent of the disorder strength $λ$ is proved for the integrated density of states $N_λ(E)$ associated to a discrete random operator $H = H_o + λV$ consisting of a translation invariant hopping matrix $H_o$ and i.i.d. single site potentials $V$ with an absolutely continuous distribution, under a regularity assumption for the hopping term.
We define a minimization problem for paths on planar graphs that, on the honeycomb lattice, is equivalent to the exploration path of the critical site percolation and than has the same scaling limit of SLE_6. We numerically study this model (testing several SLE properties on other lattices and with different boundary conditions) and state it in terms of spanning trees. This statement of the problem allows the definition of a random growth process for trees on two dimensional graphs such that SLE is recovered as a special choice of boundary conditions.
We study the question of how the competition between $\textit{bulk disorder}$ and a $\textit{localized microscopic defect}$ affects the macroscopic behavior of a system in the directed polymer context at the free energy level. We consider the directed polymer model on a disordered $d$-ary tree and represent the localized microscopic defect by modifying the disorder distribution at each vertex in a single path (branch), or in a subtree, of the tree. The polymer must choose between following the microscopic defect and finding the best branches through the bulk disorder. We describe three possibl…
The simplest Tree-Tensor-States (TTS) respecting the Parity and the Time-Reversal symmetries are studied in order to describe the ground states of Long-Ranged Quantum Spin Chains with or without disorder. Explicit formulas are given for the one-point and two-point reduced density matrices that allow to compute any one-spin and two-spin observable. For Hamiltonians containing only one-body and two-body contributions, the energy of the TTS can be then evaluated and minimized in order to obtain the optimal parameters of the TTS. This variational optimization of the TTS parameters is compared with…
We revisit an old tree graph formula, namely the Brydges-Federbush tree identity, and use it to get new bounds for the convergence radius of the Mayer series for gases of continuous particles interacting via non absolutely summable pair potentials with an attractive tail including Lennard-Jones type pair potentials.
The accuracy of the forward scattering approximation for two-point Green's functions of the Anderson localization model on the Cayley tree is studied. A relationship between the moments of the Green's function and the largest eigenvalue of the linearized transfer-matrix equation is proved in the framework of the supersymmetric functional-integral method. The new large-disorder approximation for this eigenvalue is derived and its accuracy is established. Using this approximation the probability distribution of the two-point Green's function is found and compared with that in the forward scatter…
This paper is devoted to an in-depth study of the limiting measure of Lee--Yang zeroes for the Ising Model on the Cayley Tree. We build on previous works of Müller-Hartmann-Zittartz (1974 and 1977), Barata--Marchetti (1997), and Barata--Goldbaum (2001), to determine the support of the limiting measure, prove that the limiting measure is not absolutely continuous with respect to Lebesgue measure, and determine the pointwise dimension of the measure at Lebesgue a.e. point on the unit circle and every temperature. The latter is related to the critical exponents for the phase transitions in the mo…
We summarize recent works on the stability under disorder of the absolutely continuous spectra of random operators on tree graphs. The cases covered include: Schrödinger operators with random potential, quantum graph operators for trees with randomized edge lengths, and radial quasi-periodic operators perturbed by random potentials.
We prove a result of delocalization for the Anderson model on the regular tree (Bethe lattice). When the disorder is weak, it is known that large parts of the spectrum are a.s. purely absolutely continuous, and that the dynamical transport is ballistic. In this work, we prove that in such AC regime, the eigenfunctions are also delocalized in space, in the sense that if we consider a sequence of regular graphs converging to the regular tree, then the eigenfunctions become asymptotically uniformly distributed. The precise result is a quantum ergodicity theorem.
We resolve an existing question concerning the location of the mobility edge for operators with a hopping term and a random potential on the Bethe lattice. The model has been among the earliest studied for Anderson localization, and it continues to attract attention because of analogies which have been suggested with localization issues for many particle systems. We find that extended states appear through disorder enabled resonances well beyond the energy band of the operator's hopping term. For weak disorder this includes a Lifshits tail regime of very low density of states.
We define coined Quantum Walks on the infinite rooted binary tree given by unitary operators $U(C)$ on an associated infinite dimensional Hilbert space, depending on a unitary coin matrix $C\in U(3)$, and study their spectral properties. For circulant unitary coin matrices $C$, we derive an equation for the Carathéodory function associated to the spectral measure of a cyclic vector for $U(C)$. This allows us to show that for all circulant unitary coin matrices, the spectrum of the Quantum Walk has no singular continuous component. Furthermore, for coin matrices $C$ which are orthogonal circula…
We consider a sequence of finite quantum graphs with few loops, so that they converge, in the sense of Benjamini-Schramm, to a random infinite quantum tree. We assume these quantum trees are spectrally delocalized in some interval $I$, in the sense that their spectrum in $I$ is purely absolutely continuous and their Green's functions are well controlled near the real axis. We furthermore suppose that the underlying sequence of discrete graphs is expanding. We deduce a quantum ergodicity result, showing that the eigenfunctions with eigenvalues lying in $I$ are spatially delocalized.
We establish spectral and dynamical localization for several Anderson models on metric and discrete radial trees. The localization results are obtained on compact intervals contained in the complement of discrete sets of exceptional energies. All results are proved under the minimal hypothesis on the type of disorder: the random variables generating the trees assume at least two distinct values. This level of generality, in particular, allows us to treat radial trees with disordered geometry as well as Schrödinger operators with Bernoulli-type singular potentials. Our methods are based on an i…
We define and analyze random quantum walks on homogeneous trees of degree $q\geq 3$. Such walks describe the discrete time evolution of a quantum particle with internal degree of freedom in $\C^q$ hopping on the neighboring sites of the tree in presence of static disorder. The one time step random unitary evolution operator of the particle depends on a unitary matrix $C\in U(q)$ which monitors the strength of the disorder. We prove for any $q$ that there exist open sets of matrices in $U(q)$ for which the random evolution has either pure point spectrum almost surely or purely absolutely contin…
We prove a quantum-ergodicity theorem on large graphs, for eigenfunctions of Schrödinger operators in a very general setting. We consider a sequence of finite graphs endowed with discrete Schrödinger operators, assumed to have a local weak limit. We assume that our graphs have few short loops, in other words that the limit model is a random rooted tree endowed with a random discrete Schrödinger operator. We show that absolutely continuous spectrum for the infinite model, reinforced by a good control of the moments of the Green function, imply "quantum ergodicity", a form of spatial delocalizat…
Consider a sequence of finite regular graphs (GN) converging, in the sense of Benjamini-Schramm, to the infinite regular tree. We study the induced quantum graphs with equilateral edge lengths, Kirchhoff conditions (possibly with a non-zero coupling constant $α$) and a symmetric potential U on the edges. We show that in the spectral regions where the infinite quantum tree has absolutely continuous spectrum, the eigenfunctions of the converging quantum graphs satisfy a quantum ergodicity theorem. In case $α$ = 0 and U = 0, the limit measure is the uniform measure on the edges. In general, it ha…
For unitary operators $U_0,U$ in Hilbert spaces ${\mathcal H}_0,{\mathcal H}$ and identification operator $J:{\mathcal H}_0\to{\mathcal H}$, we present results on the derivation of a Mourre estimate for $U$ starting from a Mourre estimate for $U_0$ and on the existence and completeness of the wave operators for the triple $(U,U_0,J)$. As an application, we determine spectral and scattering properties of a class of anisotropic quantum walks on homogenous trees of odd degree with evolution operator $U$. In particular, we establish a Mourre estimate for $U$, obtain a class of locally $U$-smooth o…
For operators with homogeneous disorder, it is generally expected that there is a relation between the spectral characteristics of a random operator in the infinite setup and the distribution of the energy gaps in its finite volume versions, in corresponding energy ranges. Whereas pure point spectrum of the infinite operator goes along with Poisson level statistics, it is expected that purely absolutely continuous spectrum would be associated with gap distributions resembling the corresponding random matrix ensemble. We prove that on regular rooted trees, which exhibit both spectral types, the…
We investigate spectral properties of Kirchhoff Laplacians on radially symmetric antitrees. This class of metric graphs enjoys a rich group of symmetries, which enables us to obtain a decomposition of the corresponding Laplacian into the orthogonal sum of Sturm--Liouville operators. In contrast to the case of radially symmetric trees, the deficiency indices of the Laplacian defined on the minimal domain are at most one and they are equal to one exactly when the corresponding metric antitree has finite total volume. In this case, we provide an explicit description of all self-adjoint extensions…
For any multi-graph $G$ with edge weights and vertex potential, and its universal covering tree $\mathcal{T}$, we completely characterize the point spectrum of operators $A_{\mathcal{T}}$ on $\mathcal{T}$ arising as pull-backs of local, self-adjoint operators $A_{G}$ on $G$. This builds on work of Aomoto, and includes an alternative proof of the necessary condition for point spectrum he derived in (Aomoto, 1991). Our result gives a finite time algorithm to compute the point spectrum of $A_{\mathcal{T}}$ from the graph $G$, and additionally allows us to show that this point spectrum is containe…
It is shown that in a large class of disordered systems with non-degenerate disorder, in presence of non-local interactions, the Integrated Density of States (IDS) is at least Hölder continuous in one dimension and universally infinitely differentiable in higher dimensions. This result applies also to the IDS in any finite volume subject to the random potential induced by an ambient, infinitely extended disordered media. Dimension one is critical: in the Bernoulli case, within the class of exponential interactions, the IDS measure undergoes continuity phase transitions, from absolutely continu…
We analyse the spectral phase diagram of Schrödinger operators $ T +λV$ on regular tree graphs, with $T$ the graph adjacency operator and $V$ a random potential given by iid random variables. The main result is a criterion for the emergence of absolutely continuous (ac) spectrum due to fluctuation-enabled resonances between distant sites. Using it we prove that for unbounded random potentials ac spectrum appears at arbitrarily weak disorder $(λ\ll 1)$ in an energy regime which extends beyond the spectrum of $T$. Incorporating considerations of the Green function's large deviations we obtain an…
We consider the Anderson localization problem on the infinite regular tree. Within the localized phase, we derive a rigorous lower bound on the free energy function recently introduced by Aizenman and Warzel. Using a finite volume regularization, we also derive an upper bound on this free energy function. This yields upper and lower bounds on the critical disorder such that all states at a given energy become localized. These bounds are particularly useful in the large connectivity limit where they match, confirming the early predictions of Abou-Chacra, Anderson and Thouless.
