The initial decay rate of a mixed state is discussed; is shown to be zero for finite energy states. In the previous paper [1] we investigated a general scheme for description of unstable systems. One of our results concerned the initial decay rate. Generalizing the earlier results of Horwitz and Marchand (see [2] and other references contained in [1]) we proved there, that the initial decay rate of any pure state of the unstable system equals to zero, if this state is so called finite energy state. Here we shall be interested in the same problem, assuming now the state of the decaying system to be in general mixed. Such assumption seems to be reasonable: firstly, from the point of view of an experiment it is too restrictive to treat only pure states of unstable systems. In particular, mixed states are generally considered in the recent studies about the influence of measuring devices on the time evolution of the unstable system [3

We sketch here two mathematical models intended to describe the point-contact spectroscopical experiments. A new item is added to the list of recently discovered applications of the self-adjoint extensions theory.

We investigate a periodic quantum graph in the form of a square lattice with a general self-adjoint coupling at the vertices. We analyse the spectrum's high-energy behaviour. Depending on the coupling type, bands and gaps have different asymptotics. Bands may be flat even if the edges are coupled, and non-flat band widths may behave like\mathcal O (n^ j),\, j= 1, 0,-1,-2,-3, as the band index n. The gaps may be of asymptotically constant width or linearly growing with the latter case being generic.

We consider an electron constrained to move on a surface with revolution symmetry in the presence of a constant magnetic field B parallel to the surface axis. Depending on B and the surface geometry the transverse part of the spectrum typically exhibits many crossings which change to avoided crossings if a weak symmetry breaking interaction is introduced. We study the effect of such perturbations on the quantum propagation. This problem admits a natural reformulation to which tools from molecular dynamics can be applied. In turn, this leads to the study of a perturbation theory for the time dependent BornOppenheimer approximation.

The problem of maximizing the L p norms of chords connecting points on a closed curve separated by arc length u arises in electrostatic and quantum-mechanical problems. It is known that among all closed curves of fixed length, the unique maximizing shape is the circle for 1 p 2, but this is not the case for sufficiently large values of p. Here we determine the critical value p c (u) of p above which the circle is not a local maximizer finding, in particular, that p c (1 2 L)= 5 2. This corrects a claim made in [P. Exner, EM Harrell, M. Loss, Lett. Math. Phys. 75 (2006) 225].