On the evaluation of the norm of an integral operator associated with the stability of one-electron atoms

A virial theorem is established for the operator proposed by Brown and Ravenhall as a model for relativistic one-electron atoms. As a consequence, it is proved that the operator has no eigenvalues greater than $\max(m c^2, 2 \alpha Z - \frac{1}{2})$, where $\alpha$ is the fine structure constant, for all values of the nuclear charge $Z$ below the critical value $Z_c$: in particular there are no eigenvalues embedded in the essential spectrum when $Z \leq 3/4 \alpha$. Implicati...

We consider the Brown--Ravenhall model of a relativistic atom with N electrons and a nucleus of charge Z and prove the existence of an infinite number of discrete eigenvalues for N <= Z. As an intermediate result we prove a HVZ-type theorem for these systems.

In this article we prove the absence of relativistic effects in leading order for the ground-state energy according to Brown-Ravenhall operator. We obtain this asymptotic result for negative ions and for systems with the number of electrons proportional to the nuclear charge. In the case of neutral atoms the analogous result was obtained earlier by Cassanas and Siedentop [4].

We use the Foldy--Wouthuysen (unitary) transformation to give an alternative characterization of the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions for the Brown-Ravenhall operator (the projected Dirac operator) in the case of a one-electron atom. In particular we transform the eigenvalues problem into an elliptic problem in the 4-dim half space $\mathbb{R}^4_{+}$ with Neumann boundary condition.

We consider relativistic many-particle operators which - according to Brown and Ravenhall - describe the electronic states of heavy atoms. Their ground state energy is investigated in the limit of large nuclear charge and velocity of light. We show that the leading quasi-classical behavior given by the Thomas-Fermi theory is raised by a subleading correction, the Scott correction. Our result is valid for the maximal range of coupling constants, including the critical one. As ...

We consider the pseudorelativistic no-pair Brown-Ravenhall operator for the description of relativistic one-electron ions in a homogeneous magnetic field B. It is shown for central charge not exceeding Z=87 that their ground state energy decreases according to the square root of B as B tends to infinity, in contrast to the nonrelativistic behaviour.

We consider a hydrogen-like atom in a quantized electromagnetic field which is modeled by means of a no-pair operator acting in the positive spectral subspace of the free Dirac operator minimally coupled to the quantized vector potential. We prove that the infimum of the spectrum of the no-pair operator is an evenly degenerate eigenvalue. In particular, we show that the bottom of its spectrum is strictly less than its ionization threshold. These results hold true, for arbitra...

We consider a relativistic hydrogenic atom in a strong magnetic field. The ground state level depends on the strength of the magnetic field and reaches the lower end of the spectral gap of the Dirac-Coulomb operator for a certain critical value, the critical magnetic field. We also define a critical magnetic field in a Landau level ansatz. In both cases, when the charge Z of the nucleus is not too small, these critical magnetic fields are huge when measured in Tesla, but not ...

The Brown-Ravenhall operator was initially proposed as an alternative to describe the fermion-fermion interaction via Coulomb potential and subject to relativity. This operator is defined in terms of the associated Dirac operator and the projection onto the positive spectral subspace of the free Dirac operator. In this paper, we propose to analyze a modified version of the Brown-Ravenhall operator in two-dimensions. More specifically, we consider the Brown-Ravenhall operator ...

Based on the Mehler heat kernel of the Schroedinger operator for a free electron in a constant magnetic field an estimate for the kernel of E_A is derived, where E_A represents the kinetic energy of a Dirac electron within the pseudorelativistic no-pair Brown-Ravenhall model. This estimate is used to provide the bottom of the essential spectrum for the two-particle Brown-Ravenhall operator, describing the motion of the electrons in a central Coulomb field and a constant magne...