Jitse Niesen<p>In the past few weeks I have been trying to understand the eigenvalue problem (time-independent Schrödinger equation)</p><p>–𝑢'' + λ (cos 𝑥 + cos τ𝑥) 𝑢 = 𝐸𝑢 </p><p>where λ is a parameter, 𝐸 is the eigenvalue (blame the physicists for the notation), τ is the golden ratio and the problem is posed on the infinite line. The motivation comes from quasicrystals.</p><p>Some solutions are localized around a minimum of the potential, but the none of the corresponding eigenvalues are isolated.</p><p>At higher energies, solutions spread out over the whole line, giving rise to the absolutely continuous spectrum which is a Cantor set.</p><p>This is wild, at least for me, but partially supported by my own computations and functional analysis results. But I am not fully confident of the former and struggling to understand the latter, so I am not sure whether this picture is complete or even correct. </p><p>The more I look into it, the less I understand ... any pointers are appreciated.</p><p><a href="https://mathstodon.xyz/tags/FunctionalAnalysis" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>FunctionalAnalysis</span></a> <a href="https://mathstodon.xyz/tags/quasicrystal" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>quasicrystal</span></a> <a href="https://mathstodon.xyz/tags/SchrodingerEquation" class="mention hashtag" rel="tag">#<span>SchrodingerEquation</span></a></p>