2002/06/17 by Marcel Griesemer, Griesemer, Marcel · 2 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #81Q10 #81V10 #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #FOS: Mathematics #FOS: Physical sciences #Functional Analysis (math.FA) #Mathematical Physics (math-ph) #Quantum optics and atomic interactions #Spectral Theory in Mathematical Physics #math-ph #math.FA #math.MP #msc:81Q10 #msc:81V10
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.math-ph/0206024
18 pages, revised version, small inaccuracies corrected
openalex publication_date 2002/06/17 · arxiv created 2003/06/27 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Spatial localization of the electrons of an atom or molecule is studied in models of non-relativistic matter coupled to quantized radiation. We give two definitions of the ionization threshold. One in terms of spectral data of cluster Hamiltonians, and one in terms of minimal energies of non-localized states. We show that these two definitions agree, and that the electrons described by a state with energy below the ionization threshold are localized in a small neighborhood of the nuclei with a probability that approaches 1 exponentially fast with increasing radius of the neighborhood. The latter result is derived from a new, general result on exponential decay tailored to fit our problem, but applicable to many non-relativistic quantum systems outside quantum electrodynamics as well.