Work

The concentration conjecture for Dirac--Coulomb operators

Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: We prove the concentration conjecture for the three-dimensional Dirac operator with mass $m>0$ and an attractive Coulomb potential generated by finitely many point charges. For a fixed total charge $G\in(0,1]$, the lowest eigenvalue in the spectral gap is at least $m\sqrt{1-G^2}$, with equality precisely when all the charge is concentrated at one point. The critical one-center operator is understood as its distinguished extension. The result also extends to arbitrary nonnegative finite charge measures. The proof uses a strict two-center estimate for the weighted free Dirac resolvent and a Birman-Schwinger comparison. We establish the two-center estimate through an auxiliary axial operator, combining a zero-energy bound and a scalar resolvent estimate with a radial decomposition, an angular Schur complement, and exact polynomial inequalities.
Institution: ETH Zurich
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7223086801
Cites: 11
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Related to: 10