Matrix-Valued Generalizations of the Theorems of Borg and Hochstadt

Abstract

We prove a generalization of the well-known theorems by Borg and Hochstadt for periodic self-adjoint Schrödinger operators without a spectral gap, respectively, one gap in their spectrum, in the matrix-valued context. Our extension of the theorems of Borg and Hochstadt replaces the periodicity condition of the potential by the more general property of being reflectionless (the resulting potentials then automatically turn out to be periodic and we recover Després' matrix version of Borg's result). In addition, we assume the spectra to have uniform maximum multiplicity (a condition automatically fulfilled in the scalar context considered by Borg and Hochstadt). Moreover, the connection with the stationary matrix KdV hierarchy is established. The methods employed in this paper rely on matrix-valued Herglotz functions, Weyl--Titchmarsh theory, pencils of matrices, and basic inverse spectral theory for matrix-valued Schrödinger operators.