TY - JOUR A1 - Klein, Markus A1 - Rosenberger, Elke T1 - Tunneling for a class of difference operators T2 - Annales Henri Poincaré : a journal of theoretical and mathematical physics N2 - We analyze a general class of difference operators Hε=Tε+Vε on ℓ2((εZ)d), where Vε is a multi-well potential and ε is a small parameter. We derive full asymptotic expansions of the prefactor of the exponentially small eigenvalue splitting due to interactions between two “wells” (minima) of the potential energy, i.e., for the discrete tunneling effect. We treat both the case where there is a single minimal geodesic (with respect to the natural Finsler metric induced by the leading symbol h0(x,ξ) of Hε) connecting the two minima and the case where the minimal geodesics form an ℓ+1 dimensional manifold, ℓ≥1. These results on the tunneling problem are as sharp as the classical results for the Schrödinger operator in Helffer and Sjöstrand (Commun PDE 9:337–408, 1984). Technically, our approach is pseudo-differential and we adapt techniques from Helffer and Sjöstrand [Analyse semi-classique pour l’équation de Harper (avec application à l’équation de Schrödinger avec champ magnétique), Mémoires de la S.M.F., 2 series, tome 34, pp 1–113, 1988)] and Helffer and Parisse (Ann Inst Henri Poincaré 60(2):147–187, 1994) to our discrete setting. Y1 - 2018 UR - https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/51292 SN - 1424-0637 SN - 1424-0661 VL - 19 IS - 11 SP - 3511 EP - 3559 PB - Springer International Publishing CY - Cham ER -