We study a charged two-dimensional particle confined to a straight parabolic-potential channel and exposed to a homogeneous magnetic field under the influence of a potential perturbation W. If W is bounded and periodic along the channel, a perturbative argument yields the absolute continuity of the bottom of the spectrum. We show that it can have any finite number of open gaps provided that the confining potential is sufficiently strong. However, if W depends on the periodic variable only, we prove by the Thomas argument that the whole spectrum is absolutely continuous, irrespective of the size of the perturbation. On the other hand, if W is small and satisfies a weak localization condition in the the longitudinal direction, we prove by the Mourre method that a part of the absolutely continuous spectrum persists.

The subject of the paper is Schrdinger operators on tree graphs which are radial, having the branching number bn at all the vertices at the distance tn from the root. We consider a family of coupling conditions at the vertices characterized by (bn1)2+4 real parameters. We prove that if the graph is sparse so that there is a subsequence of {tn+1tn} growing to infinity, in the absence of the potential the absolutely continuous spectrum is empty for a large subset of these vertex couplings, but on the the other hand, there are cases when the spectrum of such a Schrdinger operator can be purely absolutely continuous.

Consider an unstable quantum system that has been found undecayed at an instant s and denote by R(t,s) the rate of its regeneration into an original (undecayed) state at a later instant t+s. It is proved that the reduced evolution is a semigroup, i.e., there is no regeneration at all, provided R(t,s)1/2 can be estimated by a sufficiently regular function that is nondecreasing in s and has zero derivative with respect to t at t=0 for every s. This generalizes the theorem of Misra and Sinha [Helv. Phys. Acta 45, 619 (1972)] in a different direction than in a recent paper by Nishioka [J. Math. Phys. 29, 1860 (1988)].

We consider scattering of a three-dimensional particle on a finite family of potentials. For some parameter values the scattering wavefunctions exhibit nodal lines in the form of closed loops, which may touch but do not entangle. The corresponding probability current forms vortical singularities around these lines; if the scattered particle is charged, this gives rise to magnetic flux loops in the vicinity of the nodal lines. The conclusions extend to scattering on hard obstacles or smooth potentials.

Some electromagnetic materials exhibit, in a given frequency range, effective dielectric permittivity and/or magnetic permeability which are negative. In the literature, they are called negative index materials, left-handed materials or meta-materials. We propose in this paper a numerical method to solve a wave transmission between a classical dielectric material and a meta-material. The method we investigate can be considered as an alternative method compared to the method presented by the second author and co-workers. In particular, we shall use the abstract framework they developed to prove well-posedness of the exact problem. We recast this problem to fit later discretization by the staggered discontinuous Galerkin method developed by the first author and co-worker, a method which relies on introducing an auxiliary unknown. Convergence of the numerical method is proven, with the help of explicit infsup