The Morse and Maslov indices for multidimensional Schr\"odinger operators with matrix-valued potentials

TL;DR

This paper establishes a relationship between the Morse index, Maslov index, and spectral properties of multidimensional Schrödinger operators with matrix-valued potentials on star-shaped domains, using domain shrinking and boundary trace analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a novel framework linking Morse and Maslov indices for matrix-valued Schrödinger operators with general boundary conditions via domain rescaling and spectral analysis.

Findings

Derived a formula connecting Morse index and Maslov index for these operators.

Linked the spectral properties of the potential at the domain center to the operator's negative eigenvalues.

Extended the analysis to operators with Robin-type boundary conditions and matrix-valued potentials.

Abstract

We study the Schr\"odinger operator $L=-\Delta+V$ on a star-shaped domain $\Omega$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$ with Lipschitz boundary $\partial\Omega$. The operator is equipped with quite general Dirichlet- or Robin-type boundary conditions induced by operators between $H^{1/2}(\partial\Omega)$ and $H^{-1/2}(\partial\Omega)$, and the potential takes values in the set of symmetric $N\times N$ matrices. By shrinking the domain and rescaling the operator we obtain a path in the Fredholm-Lagrangian-Grassmannian of the subspace of $H^{1/2}(\partial\Omega)\times H^{-1/2}(\partial\Omega)$ corresponding to the given boundary condition. The path is formed by computing the Dirichlet and Neumann traces of weak solutions to the rescaled eigenvalue equation. We prove a formula relating the number of negative eigenvalues of $L$ (the Morse index), the signed crossings of the path (the Maslov index), the number of negative eigenvalues of the potential matrix evaluated at the center of the domain, and the number of negative squares of a bilinear form related to the boundary operator.