Guaranteed Lower Eigenvalue Bounds for Spectral Galerkin Methods with Application to Schrödinger Operators

Abstract

Spectral Galerkin methods are renowned for high-precision eigenvalue approximation, yet a rigorous lower bound obtained directly from a spectral discretisation has remained unavailable: the classical Kato and Weinstein--Temple enclosures do apply, but require a~priori information on a neighbouring eigenvalue. This paper resolves the issue by extending the author's projection-based framework for guaranteed lower eigenvalue bounds -- so far realised only through finite element methods -- to conforming spectral Galerkin methods. For trial spaces of exact eigenfunctions the required projection constant is the closed-form optimal value $C_N=λ_{M+1}^{-1/2}$, the inverse square root of the first omitted eigenvalue. For $-Δ+V$ with $0\le V\in L^\infty$, a \emph{projection-gap estimate} yields an explicit constant for the standard Galerkin matrix (exact at $V=0$), and a composite discretisation removes the $||V||_{L^\infty}$-dependence for large potentials. With Neumann domain truncation these give certified two-sided bounds on $R^d$; for two benchmark potentials on $R^2$ the spectral enclosures match or surpass certified finite element ones at two orders of magnitude fewer degrees of freedom. The same auxiliary-projector mechanism extends to singular potentials with an unbounded $L^\infty$ norm -- in particular to attractive Coulomb singularities in three dimensions, via a localised Hardy inequality -- which we develop in a companion paper.