PDE/Analysis Seminar

Speaker: Izak Oltman (Northwestern University) Title: The Spectrum of the Discrete Mathieu Operator with Non-Real Coupling Abstract: In this talk, I will describe the spectrum of a non-self-adjoint version of the periodic Harper’s equation. One example of this is the so-called Scottish Flag Operator. A description of the spectrum relies on exact WKB methods to approximate solutions to analytic finite difference equations. I will motivate the study of such operators, describe the main ideas of the proof, and explain the exact WKB techniques that are used. This is joint work with Frédéric Klopp.