On a problem in eigenvalue perturbation theory

Abstract

We consider additive perturbations of the type $K_t=K_0+tW$, $t\in [0,1]$, where $K_0$ and $W$ are self-adjoint operators in a separable Hilbert space $\mathcal{H}$ and $W$ is bounded. In addition, we assume that the range of $W$ is a generating (i.e., cyclic) subspace for $K_0$. If ${\lambda }_0$ is an eigenvalue of $K_0$, then under the additional assumption that $W$ is nonnegative, the Lebesgue measure of the set of all $t\in [0,1]$ for which ${\lambda }_0$ is an eigenvalue of $K_t$ is known to be zero. We recall this result with its proof and show by explicit counterexample that the nonnegativity assumption $W\ge 0$ cannot be removed.

10 pages; added Lemma 2.4, typos removed; to appear in J. Math. Anal. Appl