(Modified) Fredholm Determinants for Operators with Matrix-Valued Semi-Separable Integral Kernels Revisited

Abstract.

We revisit the computation of (2-modified) Fredholm determinants for operators with matrix-valued semi-separable integral kernels. The latter occur, for instance, in the form of Green’s functions associated with closed ordinary differential operators on arbitrary intervals on the real line. Our approach determines the (2-modified) Fredholm determinants in terms of solutions of closely associated Volterra integral equations, and as a result offers a natural way to compute such determinants.

We illustrate our approach by identifying classical objects such as the Jost function for half-line Schrödinger operators and the inverse transmission coefficient for Schrödinger operators on the real line as Fredholm determinants, and rederiving the well-known expressions for them in due course. We also apply our formalism to Floquet theory of Schrödinger operators, and upon identifying the connection between the Floquet discriminant and underlying Fredholm determinants, we derive new representations of the Floquet discriminant.

Finally, we rederive Böttcher’s formula for the 2-modified Fredholm determinant corresponding to a convolution integral operator, whose kernel is associated with a symbol given by a rational function, in a straghtforward manner. This determinant formula represents a Wiener-Hopf analog of Day’s formula for the determinant associated with finite Toeplitz matrices generated by the Laurent expansion of a rational function.