On the semi-classical analysis of the groundstate energy of the Dirichlet Pauli operator III: Magnetic fields that change sign

Abstract: We consider the semi-classical Dirichlet Pauli operator in bounded connected domains in the plane. Rather optimal results have been obtained in previous papers by Ekholm-Kova\v{r}\'ik-Portmann and Helffer-Sundqvist for the asymptotics of the ground state energy in the semi-classical limit when the magnetic field has constant sign. In this paper, we focus on the case when the magnetic field changes sign. We show, in particular, that the ground state energy of this Pauli operator will be exponentially small as the semi-classical parameter tends to zero and give lower bounds and upper bounds for this decay rate. Concrete examples of magnetic fields changing sign on the unit disc are discussed. Various natural conjectures are disproved and this leaves the research of an optimal result in the general case still open.