In this survey, our aim is to emphasize the main known limitations to the use of Wigner measures for Schrodinger equations. After a short review of successful applications of Wigner measures to study the semi-classical limit of solutions to Schrodinger equations, we list some examples where Wigner measures cannot be a good tool to describe high frequency limits. Typically, the Wigner measures may not capture effects which are not negligible at the pointwise level, or the propagation of Wigner measures may be an ill-posed problem. In the latter situation, two families of functions may have the same Wigner measures at some initial time, but different Wigner measures for a larger time. In the case of systems, this difficulty can partially be avoided by considering more refined Wigner measures such as two-scale Wigner measures; however, we give examples of situations where this quadratic approach fails.
We consider solutions of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for a potential localised at the points of a Poisson process. We prove convergence of the phase-space distribution in the annealed Boltzmann-Grad limit to a semiclassical Wigner (or defect) measure and show that it is a solution of the linear Boltzmann equation. Our results hold for a large class of square-integrable initial data associated to Wigner measures, including Langragian states, WKB states and coherent states. This extends important previous work by Eng and Erdős.
We consider Schrödinger equations with real quadratic Hamiltonians, for which the Wigner distribution of the solution at a given time equals, up to a linear coordinate transformation, the Wigner distribution of the initial condition. Based on Hardy's uncertainty principle for the joint time-frequency representation, we prove a uniqueness result for such Schrödinger equations, where the solution cannot have strong decay at two distinct times. This approach reproduces known, sharp results for the free Schrödinger equation and the harmonic oscillator, and we also present an explicit scheme for qu…
We analyse the structure of semiclassical and microlocal Wigner measures for solutions to the linear Schrödinger equation on the disk, with Dirichlet boundary conditions. Our approach links the propagation of singularities beyond geometric optics with the completely integrable nature of the billiard in the disk. We prove a "structure theorem", expressing the restriction of the Wigner measures on each invariant torus in terms of {\em second-microlocal measures}. They are obtained by performing a finer localization in phase space around each of these tori, at the limit of the uncertainty princip…
We study the phase-space concentration of the so-called generalized metaplectic operators whose main examples are Schrödinger equations with bounded perturbations. To reach this goal, we perform a so-called $\mathcal{A}$-Wigner analysis of the previous equations, as started in Part I, cf. [14]. Namely, the classical Wigner distribution is extended by considering a class of time-frequency representations constructed as images of metaplectic operators acting on symplectic matrices $\mathcal{A}\in Sp(2d,\mathbb{R})$. Sub-classes of these representations, related to covariant symplectic matrices, …
We show that the short-time Fourier transform of the pointwise product of two functions $f$ and $h$ can be written as a suitable product of the short-time Fourier transforms of $f$ and $h$. The same result is then shown to be valid for the Wigner wave-packet transform. We study the main properties of the new products. We then use these products to derive integro-differential equations on the time-frequency space equivalent to, and generalizing, the cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation. We also obtain the Weyl-Wigner-Moyal equation satisfied by the Wigner-Ville function associated with the solu…
We consider the classical limit of the Nelson model, a system of stable nucleons interacting with a meson field. We prove convergence of the quantum dynamics towards the evolution of the coupled Klein-Gordon-Schrödinger equation. Also, we show that the ground state energy level of $N$ nucleons, when $N$ is large and the meson field approaches its classical value, is given by the infimum of the classical energy functional at a fixed density of particles. Our study relies on a recently elaborated approach for mean field theory and uses Wigner measures.
We consider the N-body Schrödinger dynamics of bosons in the mean field limit with a bounded pair-interaction potential. According to the previous work \cite{AmNi}, the mean field limit is translated into a semiclassical problem with a small parameter $ε\to 0$, after introducing an $ε$-dependent bosonic quantization. The limit is expressed as a push-forward by a nonlinear flow (e.g. Hartree) of the associated Wigner measures. These object and their basic properties were introduced in \cite{AmNi} in the infinite dimensional setting. The additional result presented here states that the transport…
Smoothed Wigner transforms have been used in signal processing, as a regularized version of the Wigner transform, and have been proposed as an alternative to it in the homogenization and / or semiclassical limits of wave equations. We derive explicit, closed formulations for the coarse-scale representation of the action of pseudodifferential operators. The resulting ``smoothed operators'' are in general of infinite order. The formulation of an appropriate framework, resembling the Gelfand-Shilov spaces, is necessary. Similarly we treat the ``smoothed Wigner calculus''. In particular this allow…
We consider the semiclassical limit of nonlinear Schrödinger equations with wavepacket initial data. We recover the Wigner measure of the problem, a macroscopic phase-space density which controls the propagation of the physical observables such as mass, energy and momentum. Wigner measures have been used to create effective models for wave propagation in random media, quantum molecular dynamics, mean field limits, and the propagation of electrons in graphene. In nonlinear settings, the Vlasov-type equations obtained for the Wigner measure are often ill-posed on the physically interesting space…
We study the evolution of Wigner measures of a family of solutions of a Schrödinger equation with a scalar potential displaying a conical singularity. Under a genericity assumption, classical trajectories exist and are unique, thus the question of the propagation of Wigner measures along these trajectories becomes relevant. We prove the propagation for general initial data.
Wigner and Husimi transforms have long been used for the phase-space reformulation of Schrödinger-type equations, and the study of the corresponding semiclassical limits. Most of the existing results provide approximations in appropriate weak topologies. In this work we are concerned with semiclassical limits in the strong topology, i.e. approximation of Wigner functions by solutions of the Liouville equation in $L^2$ and Sobolev norms. The results obtained improve the state of the art, and highlight the role of potential regularity, especially through the regularity of the Wigner equation. It…
We present some lower bounds for regular solutions of Schrödinger equations with bounded and time dependent complex potentials. Assuming that the solution has some positive mass at time zero within a ball of certain radius, we prove that this mass can be observed if one looks at the solution and its gradient in space-time regions outside of that ball.
We obtain generalizations of the classical Menchov-Rademacher theorem to the case of continuous orthogonal systems. These results are applied to show the existence of Moller wave operators in Schrodinger evolution.
We use the dispersive properties of the linear Schrödinger equation to prove local well-posedness results for the Boltzmann equation and the related Boltzmann hierarchy, set in the spatial domain $\mathbb{R}^d$ for $d\geq 2$. The proofs are based on the use of the (inverse) Wigner transform along with the spacetime Fourier transform. The norms for the initial data $f_0$ are weighted versions of the Sobolev spaces $L^2_v H^α_x$ with $α\in \left( \frac{d-1}{2},\infty\right)$. Our main results are local well-posedness for the Boltzmann equation for cutoff Maxwell molecules and hard spheres, as we…
In this paper we study the asymptotic phase space energy distribution of solution of the Schrödinger equation with a time-dependent random potential. The random potential is assumed to be with slowly decaying correlations. We show that the Wigner transform of a solution of the random Schrödinger equation converges in probability to the solution of a radiative transfer equation. Moreover, we show that this radiative transfer equation with long-range coupling has a regularizing effect on its solutions. Finally, we give an approximation of this equation in term of a fractional Laplacian. The deri…
In this work we present an application of a theory of vessels to solution of the evolutionary Non Liner Schrodinger (NLS) equation. The classes of functions for which the initial value problem is solvable relies on the existence of an analogue of the inverse scattering theory for the usual NLS equation. This approach is similar to the classical approach of Zackarov-Shabbath for solving of evolutionary NLS equation, but has an advantage of simpler formulas and new techniques and notions to construct solutions of the evolutionary NLS equation.
We perform Wigner analysis of linear operators. Namely, the standard time-frequency representation \emph{Short-time Fourier Transform} (STFT) is replaced by the $\mathcal{A}$-\emph{Wigner distribution} defined by $W_{\mathcal A} (f)=μ({\mathcal A})(f\otimes\bar{f})$, where ${\mathcal A}$ is a $4d\times 4d$ symplectic matrix and $μ({\mathcal A})$ is an associate metaplectic operator. Basic examples are given by the so-called $τ$-Wigner distributions. Such representations provide a new characterization for modulation spaces when $τ\in (0,1)$. Furthermore, they can be efficiently employed in the …
We consider a nonlinear semi-classical Schrodinger equation for which it is known that quadratic oscillations lead to focusing at one point, described by a nonlinear scattering operator. If the initial data is an energy bounded sequence, we prove that the nonlinear term has an effect at leading order only if the initial data have quadratic oscillations; the proof relies on a linearizability condition (which can be expressed in terms of Wigner measures). When the initial data is a sum of such quadratic oscillations, we prove that the associate solution is the superposition of the nonlinear evol…
We prove unique continuation principles for solutions of evolution Schrödinger equations with time dependent potentials. These correspond to uncertainly principles of Paley-Wiener type for the Fourier transform. Our results extends to a large class of semi-linear Schrödinger equation.
We study a generalization of Husimi function in the context of wavelets. This leads to a nonnegative density on phase-space for which we compute the evolution equation corresponding to a SchrÄodinger equation.
In this paper we give new estimates for the solution to the Schrödinger equation with quadratic and sub-quadratic potentials in the framework of modulation spaces.
We prove unique continuation properties for solutions of evolution Schrödinger equation with time dependent potentials. In the case of the free solution these correspond to uncertainly principles referred to as being of Morgan type. As an application of our method we also obtain results concerning the possible concentration profiles of solutions of semi-linear Schrödinger equations.
We prove unique continuation properties for solutions of the evolution Schrödinger equation with time dependent potentials. As an application of our method we also obtain results concerning the possible concentration profiles of blow up solutions and the possible profiles of the traveling waves solutions of semi-linear Schrödinger equations.
We discuss the microlocal Gevrey smoothing effect for the Schrödinger equation with variable coefficients via the propagation property of the wave front set of homogenous type. We apply the microlocal exponential estimates in a Gevrey case to prove our result.
