True. Continuity and compactness give a maximum of on . At an interior maximum the Hessian matrix is negative semidefinite, so its trace satisfies , contradicting . The maximum must therefore occur on . This is the strict form of the maximum principle for subharmonic functions.
Suppose were positive somewhere. Since it tends to zero at infinity and to at its vortex zero, it would attain a positive interior maximum away from the origin. At such a maximum the second-derivative test gives , whereas the smooth Taubes equation gives
This contradiction with the maximum principle for subharmonic functions proves
Consequently the Higgs magnitude of a vortex satisfies everywhere.
Let and suppose . The sub-mean inequality on every closed disk contained in gives
Equality holds throughout. If were strictly below at one point of the circle, upper semicontinuity would make it uniformly below on a small arc, contradicting equality of the average. Thus on every sufficiently small circle centered at , and hence throughout a neighborhood of .
The set is therefore open. It is also closed because upper semicontinuity makes open. Since the domain is connected and is nonempty, it is all of . This proves the maximum principle for subharmonic functions.
Let
The resolvent set is open, and the resolvent of an element is operator-valued holomorphic on each of its components. Fix in the resolvent set. For any , choose unit vectors such that
The scalar function is holomorphic. Its modulus is subharmonic, so
Letting proves that the resolvent norm is subharmonic on the resolvent component containing .
Use the convention that the reciprocal resolvent norm is zero on the spectrum. Suppose a bounded component of
contained no spectral point. A spectral point in its boundary would belong to the same pseudospectral component, so is contained in the resolvent set. On one has , whereas inside one has . Continuity on the compact set makes the resolvent norm attain a maximum at an interior point. The subharmonic maximum principle would make it constant, contradicting its boundary values. Hence every bounded component of the pseudospectrum contains spectrum:
For a zero of order at the origin and no other zeros,
Away from the zero, the flat Taubes equation is
If had a positive interior maximum, then the second-derivative test would give there, while , a contradiction. The boundary values are at the zero and at infinity, so the maximum principle gives . Hence