Stahl-Totik Regularity for Dirac Operators

Abstract

We develop a theory of regularity for Dirac operators with uniformly locally square-integrable operator data. This is motivated by Stahl--Totik regularity for orthogonal polynomials and by recent developments for continuum Schr\"odinger operators, but contains significant new phenomena. We prove that the symmetric Martin function at $\infty$ for the complement of the essential spectrum has the two-term asymptotic expansion $\Im \left( z - \frac{b}{2 z}\right) + o(\frac 1z)$ as $z \to i \infty$, which is seen as a thickness statement for the essential spectrum. The constant $b$ plays the role of a renormalized Robin constant and enters a universal inequality involving the lower average $L^2$-norm of the operator data. However, we show that regularity of Dirac operators is not precisely characterized by a single scalar equality involving $b$ and is instead characterized by a family of equalities. This work also contains a sharp Combes--Thomas estimate (root asymptotics of eigensolutions), a study of zero counting measures, and applications to ergodic and decaying operator data.