Fine scales of decay of operator semigroups

Motivated by potential applications to partial differential equations, we develop a theory of fine scales of decay rates for operator semigroups. The theory contains, unifies, and extends several notable results in the literature on decay of operator semigroups and yields a number of new ones. Its core is a new operator-theoretical method of deriving rates of decay combining ingredients from functional calculus and complex, real and harmonic analysis. It also leads to several results of independent interest.