Spectral properties of zeroth-order pseudodifferential operators

Let Q be a self-adjoint, classical, zeroth order pseudodifferential operator on a compact manifold X with a fixed smooth measure dx. We use microlocal techniques to study the spectrum and spectral family, {E_S}_{S∈$\text{R}$} as a bounded operator on L²(X, dx).Using theorems of Weyl (Rend. Circ. Mat. Palermo, 27 (1909), 373–392) and Kato (“Perturbation Theory for Linear Operators,” Springer-Verlag, 1976) on spectra of perturbed operators we observe that the essential spectrum and the absolutely continuous spectrum of Q are determined by a finite number of terms in the symbol expansion. In particular Spec_ESSQ = range(q(x, ξ)) where q is the principal symbol of Q. Turning the attention to the spectral family {E_S}_{S∈$\text{R}$}, it is shown that if $\text{dE}\text{ds}$ is considered as a distribution on $\text{R}$×X×X it is in fact a Lagrangian distribution near the set $\text{{σ=0}?}\text{T}{}^1\text{(}\text{R}\text{×X×X)}\text{0}$ where (s, x, y, σ, ξ,η) are coordinates on T¹($\text{R}$×X×X) induced by the coordinates (s, x, y) on $\text{R}$×X×X. This leads to an easy proof that$\text{?(Q)}$ is a pseudodifferential operator if ?∈C^∞($\text{R}$) and to some results on the microlocal character of E_s. Finally, a look at the wavefront set of $\text{dE}\text{ds}$ leads to a conjecture about the existence of absolutely continuous spectrum in terms of a condition on q(x, ξ).