CMV matrices with asymptotically constant coefficients. Szegö–Blaschke class, scattering theory

We develop a modern extended scattering theory for CMV matrices with asymptotically constant Verblunsky coefficients. We show that the traditional (Faddeev–Marchenko) condition is too restrictive to define the class of CMV matrices for which there exists a unique scattering representation. The main results are: (1) the class of twosided CMV matrices acting in l2, whose spectral density satisfies the Szegö condition and whose point spectrum the Blaschke condition, corresponds precisely to the class where the scattering problem can be posed and solved. That is, to a given CMV matrix of this class, one can associate the scattering data and the FM space. The CMV matrix corresponds to the multiplication operator in this space, and the orthonormal basis in it (corresponding to the standard basis in l2) behaves asymptotically as the basis associated with the free system. (2) From the point of view of the scattering problem, the most natural class of CMV matrices is that one in which (a) the scattering data determine the matrix uniquely and (b) the associated Gelfand–Levitan–Marchenko transformation operators are bounded. Necessary and sufficient conditions for this class can be given in terms of an A2 kind condition for the density of the absolutely continuous spectrum and a Carleson kind condition for the discrete spectrum. Similar conditions close to the optimal ones are given directly in terms of the scattering data. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.