It is shown that the topologies and nestings of the zero and nodal sets of random (Gaussian) band limited functions have universal laws of distribution. Qualitative features of the supports of these distributions are determined. In particular the results apply to random monochromatic waves and to random real algebraic hyper-surfaces in projective space.
We study the volume of nodal sets for eigenfunctions of the Laplacian on the standard torus in two or more dimensions. We consider a sequence of eigenvalues $4π^2\eigenvalue$ with growing multiplicity $\Ndim\to\infty$, and compute the expectation and variance of the volume of the nodal set with respect to a Gaussian probability measure on the eigenspaces. We show that the expected volume of the nodal set is $const \sqrt{\eigenvalue}$. Our main result is that the variance of the volume normalized by $\sqrt{\eigenvalue}$ is bounded by $O(1/\sqrt{\Ndim})$, so that the normalized volume has vanish…
We consider Gaussian random eigenfunctions (Hermite functions) of fixed energy level of the isotropic semi-classical Harmonic Oscillator on ${\bf R}^n$. We calculate the expected density of zeros of a random eigenfunction in the semi-classical limit $h \to 0.$ In the allowed region the density is of order $h^{-1},$ while in the forbidden region the density is of order $h^{-\frac{1}{2}}$. The computer graphics due to E.J. Heller illustrate this difference in "frequency" between the allowed and forbidden nodal sets.
We consider vectors of random variables, obtained by restricting the length of the nodal set of Berry's random wave model to a finite collection of (possibly overlapping) smooth compact subsets of $\mathbb{R}^2$. Our main result shows that, as the energy diverges to infinity and after an adequate normalisation, these random elements converge in distribution to a Gaussian vector, whose covariance structure reproduces that of a homogeneous independently scattered random measure. A by-product of our analysis is that, when restricted to rectangles, the dominant chaotic projection of the nodal leng…
We study the length of the nodal set of eigenfunctions of the Laplacian on the $\spheredim$-dimensional sphere. It is well known that the eigenspaces corresponding to $\eigval=n(n+\spheredim-1)$ are the spaces $\eigspc$ of spherical harmonics of degree $n$, of dimension $\eigspcdim$. We use the multiplicity of the eigenvalues to endow $\eigspc$ with the Gaussian probability measure and study the distribution of the $\spheredim$-dimensional volume of the nodal sets of a randomly chosen function. The expected volume is proportional to $\sqrt{\eigval}$. One of our main results is bounding the var…
We construct deterministic solutions to the Helmholtz equation in $\mathbb{R}^m$ which behave accordingly to the Random Wave Model. We then find the number of their nodal domains, their nodal volume and the topologies and nesting trees of their nodal set in growing balls around the origin. The proof of the pseudo-random behaviour of the functions under consideration hinges on a de-randomisation technique pioneered by Bourgain and proceeds via computing their $L^p$-norms. The study of their nodal set relies on its stability properties and on the evaluation of their doubling index, in an average…
We study the asymptotic properties of the conormal cycle of nodal sets associated to a random superposition of eigenfunctions of the Laplacian on a smooth compact Riemannian manifold without boundary. In the case where the dimension is odd, we show that the expectation of the corresponding current of integration equidistributes on the fibers of the cotangent bundle. In the case where the dimension is even, we obtain an upper bound of lower order on the expectation. Using recent results of Alesker, we also deduce some properties on the asymptotic expectation of any smooth valuation including th…
We find new polynomial upper bounds for the size of nodal sets of eigenfunctions when the Riemannian manifold has a Gevrey or quasianalytic regularity.
We study nodal lines of solutions to the heat equations. We are interested in the global geometry of nodal sets, in the whole domain of definition of the solution. The local structure of nodal sets is a well understander subject, while the global geometry of nodal lines is much less clear. We give a detailed analysis of a simple component of a nodal set of a solution of the heat equation.
We study properties of the nodal sets of high frequency eigenfunctions and quasimodes for radial perturbations of the Harmonic Oscillator. In particular, we consider nodal sets on spheres of large radius (in the classically forbidden region) for quasimodes with energies lying in intervals around a fixed energy $E$. For well chosen intervals we show that these nodal sets exhibit quantitatively different behavior compared to those of the unperturbed Harmonic Oscillator. These energy intervals are defined via a careful analysis of the eigenvalue spacings for the perturbed operator, based on analy…
We give uniform upper and lower bounds for the L^2 norm of the restriction of eigenfunctions of the Laplacian on the three-dimensional standard flat torus to surfaces with non-vanishing curvature. We also present several related results concerning the nodal sets of eigenfunctions.
We study nodal sets for typical eigenfunctions of the Laplacian on the standard torus in 2 or more dimensions. Making use of the multiplicities in the spectrum of the Laplacian, we put a Gaussian measure on the eigenspaces and use it to average over the eigenspace. We consider a sequence of eigenvalues with multiplicity N tending to infinity. The quantity that we study is the Leray, or microcanonical, measure of the nodal set. We show that the expected value of the Leray measure of an eigenfunction is constant. Our main result is that the variance of Leray measure is asymptotically 1/(4 pi N),…
This note concerns the nodal sets of eigenfunctions of semiclassical Schrödinger operators acting on compact, smooth, Riemannian manifolds, with no boundary. We prove that if H is a separating hypersurface that lies inside the classically forbidden region, then H cannot persist as a component of the zero set of infinitely many eigenfunctions. In addition, on real analytic surfaces, we obtain sharp upper bounds for the number of intersections of the zero sets of the Schrödinger eigenfunctions with a fixed curve that lies inside the classically forbidden region.
We study the correlation between the nodal length of random spherical harmonics and the measure of the boundary for excursion sets at any non-zero level. We show that the correlation is asymptotically zero, while the partial correlation after controlling for the random $L^2$-norm on the sphere of the eigenfunctions is asymptotically one.
We investigate nodal sets of magnetic Schroedinger operators with zero magnetic field, acting on a non simply connected domain in $\r^2$. For the case of circulation 1/2 of the magnetic vector potential around each hole in the region, we obtain a charactisation of the nodal set, and use this to obtain bounds on the multiplicity of the groundstate. For the case of one hole and a fixed electric potential, we show that the first eigenvalue takes its highest value for circulation 1/2.
We study the scaling asymptotics of the eigenspace projection kernels $Π_{\hbar, E}(x,y)$ of the isotropic Harmonic Oscillator $- \hbar ^2 Δ+ |x|^2$ of eigenvalue $E = \hbar(N + \frac{d}{2})$ in the semi-classical limit $\hbar \to 0$. The principal result is an explicit formula for the scaling asymptotics of $Π_{\hbar, E}(x,y)$ for $x,y$ in a $\hbar^{2/3}$ neighborhood of the caustic $\mathcal C_E$ as $\hbar \to 0.$ The scaling asymptotics are applied to the distribution of nodal sets of Gaussian random eigenfunctions around the caustic as $\hbar \to 0$. In previous work we proved that the den…
We study the nodal sets of eigenfunctions of the Laplacian on the standard d-dimensional flat torus. The question we address is: Can a fixed hypersurface lie on the nodal sets of eigenfunctions with arbitrarily large eigenvalue? In dimension two, we show that this happens only for segments of closed geodesics. In higher dimensions, certain cylindrical sets do lie on nodal sets corresponding to arbitrarily large eigenvalues. Our main result is that this cannot happen for hypersurfaces with nonzero Gauss-Kronecker curvature. In dimension two, the result follows from a uniform lower bound for the…
For small range of $p>2$, we improve the $L^p$ bounds of eigenfunctions of the Laplacian on negatively curved manifolds. Our improvement is by a power of logarithm for a full density sequence of eigenfunctions. We also derive improvements on the size of the nodal sets. Our proof is based on a quantum ergodicity property of independent interest, which holds for families of symbols supported in balls whose radius shrinks at a logarithmic rate.
This paper is concerned with the location of nodal sets of eigenfunctions of the Dirichlet Laplacian in thin tubular neighbourhoods of hypersurfaces of the Euclidean space of arbitrary dimension. In the limit when the radius of the neighbourhood tends to zero, it is known that spectral properties of the Laplacian are approximated well by an effective Schrödinger operator on the hypersurface with a potential expressed solely in terms of principal curvatures. By applying techniques of elliptic partial differential equations, we strengthen the known perturbation results to get a convergence of ei…
We extend the list of known band structure topologies to include a large family of hyperbolic nodal links and knots, occurring both in conventional Hermitian systems where their stability relies on discrete symmetries, and in the dissipative non-Hermitian realm where the knotted nodal lines are generic and thus stable towards any small perturbation. We show that these nodal structures, taking the forms of Turk's head knots, appear in both continuum- and lattice models with relatively short-ranged hopping that is within experimental reach. To determine the topology of the nodal structures, we d…
We prove sharp $L^p$ estimates for the Steklov eigenfunctions on compact manifolds with boundary in terms of their $L^2$ norms on the boundary. We prove it by establishing $L^p$ bounds for the harmonic extension operators as well as the spectral projection operators on the boundary. Moreover, we derive lower bounds on the size of nodal sets for a variation of the Steklov spectral problem. We consider a generalized version of the Steklov problem by adding a non-smooth potential on the boundary but some of our results are new even without potential.
We study the nodal sets of non-degenerate eigenfunctions of the Laplacian on fibre bundles $π{:}\, M\to B$ in the adiabatic limit. This limit consists in considering a family $G_\varepsilon$ of Riemannian metrics, that are close to Riemannian submersions, for which the ratio of the diameter of the fibres to that of the base is given by $\varepsilon \ll 1$. We assume $M$ to be compact and allow for fibres $F$ with boundary, under the condition that the ground state eigenvalue of the Dirichlet-Laplacian on $F_x$ is independent of the base point. We prove for $\mathrm{dim} B \leq 3$ that the noda…
Let $ Ω\subset R^2$ be a bounded piecewise smooth domain and $ϕ_λ$ be a Neumann (or Dirichlet) eigenfunction with eigenvalue $λ^2$ and nodal set ${ N}_{ϕ_λ} = {x \in Ω; ϕ_λ(x) = 0}.$ Let $H \subset Ω$ be an interior $C^ω$ curve. Consider the intersection number $$ n(λ,H):= \# (H \cap N_{ϕ_λ} ).$$ We first prove that for general piecewise-analytic domains, and under an appropriate "goodness" condition on $H$, $$ n(λ,H) = {\mathcal O}_H(λ) (*)$$ as $λ\rightarrow \infty.$ We then prove that the bound in $(*)$ is satisfied in the case of quantum ergodic (QE) sequences of interior eigenfunctions, p…
In these notes, we describe the recent progress in understanding the zero sets of two remarkable Gaussian random functions: the Gaussian entire function with invariant distribution of zeroes with respect to isometries of the complex plane, and Gaussian spherical harmonics on the two-dimensional sphere.
Non-Hermitian nodal knot metals (NKMs) contains intricate complex-valued energy bands gives rise to knotted exceptional loops and new topological surface states. We introduce a formalism that connects the algebraic, geometric, and topological aspects of these surface states with their parent knots, and provide an optimized constructive ansatz for tight-binding models for non-Hermitian NKMs of arbitrary knot complexity and minimal hybridization range. Specifically, various representative non-Hermitian torus knots Hamiltonians are constructed in real-space, and their nodal topologies studied via…
Let $(M,g)$ be a compact manifold and let $-Δϕ_k = λ_k ϕ_k$ be the sequence of Laplacian eigenfunctions. We present a curious new phenomenon which, so far, we only managed to understand in a few highly specialized cases: the family of functions $f_N:M \rightarrow \mathbb{R}_{\geq 0}$ $$ f_N(x) = \sum_{k \leq N}{ \frac{1}{\sqrt{λ_k}} \frac{|ϕ_k(x)|}{\|ϕ_k\|_{L^{\infty}(M)}}}$$ seems strangely suited for the detection of anomalous points on the manifold. It may be heuristically interpreted as the sum over distances to the nearest nodal line and potentially hints at a new phenomenon in spectral g…