Persistence and disappearance of negative eigenvalues in dimension two

Abstract

We compute asymptotics of eigenvalues approaching the bottom of the continuous spectrum, and associated resonances, for Schrödinger operators in dimension two. We distinguish persistent eigenvalues, which have associated resonances, from disappearing ones, which do not. We illustrate the significance of this distinction by computing corresponding scattering phase asymptotics and numerical Breit–Wigner peaks. We prove all of our results for circular wells, and extend some of them to more general problems using recent resolvent techniques.