In this paper we examine the semiclassical behaviour of the scattering data of a non-self-adjoint Dirac operator with a fairly smooth but not necessarily analytic potential decaying at infinity. In particular, using ideas and methods going back to Langer and Olver, we provide the complete rigorous uniform semiclassical analysis of the scattering coefficients away (slightly) from zero, and the rigorous proof of the uniform Bohr-Sommerfeld condition for the location of the eigenvalues. Our analysis is motivated by the potential applications to the focusing cubic NLS equation, in view of the well-known fact discovered by Zakharov and Shabat that the spectral analysis of the Dirac operator is the basis of the solution of the NLS equation via inverse scattering theory. This paper complements and extends a previous work of Fujiié and the second author, which considered a more restricted problem for a strictly analytic potential.
In this paper we examine the semiclassical behaviour of the scattering data of a non-self-adjoint Dirac operator with analytic potential decaying at infinity. In particular, employing the exact WKB method, we provide the complete rigorous uniform semiclassical analysis of the reflection coefficient and the Bohr-Sommerfeld condition for the location of the eigenvalues. Our analysis has some interesting consequences concerning the focusing cubic NLS equation, in view of the well-known fact discovered by Zakharov and Shabat that the spectral analysis of the Dirac operator is the basis of the solu…
In this paper we continue the study (initiated in arXiv:2003.13584) of the semiclassical behavior of the scattering data of a non-self-adjoint Dirac operator with a real, positive, fairly smooth but not necessarily analytic potential decaying at infinity; in this paper we allow this potential to have several local maxima and minima. We provide the rigorous semiclassical analysis of the Bohr-Sommerfeld condition for the location of the eigenvalues, the norming constants, and the reflection coefficient.
We consider the semiclassical Schrödinger-Poisson system with a special initial data of WKB type such that the solution of the limiting hydrodynamical equation becomes time-global in dimensions at least three. We give an example of such initial data in the focusing case via the analysis of the compressible Euler-Poisson equations. This example is a large data with radial symmetry, and is beyond the reach of the previous results because the phase part decays too slowly. Extending previous results in this direction, we justify the WKB approximation of the solution with this data for an arbitrari…
In this paper we examine the semiclassical behavior of the scattering data of a non-self-adjoint Dirac operator with a rapidly oscillating potential that is complex analytic in some neighborhood of the real line. Some of our results are rigorous and quite general. On the other hand, complete and concrete understanding requires the investigation of the WKB geometry of specific examples. For such detailed computations we use a particular example that has been investigated numerically more than 20 years ago by Bronski and Miller and rely heavily on their numerical computations. Mostly employing t…
We propose a new approximate series solution of the semiclassical Wigner equation by uniformization of WKB approximations of the Schrödinger eigenfunctions.
We present an analytic calculation of the semiclassical electron-positron pair creation rate by time-dependent electrical fields. We use two methods, first the imaginary time method in the WKB-approximation and second the world-line instanton approach. The analytic tools for both methods are generalized to time-dependent electric fields with more than one component. For the WKB method an expansion of the momentum spectrum of produced pairs around the canonical momentum $\vec{P}=0$ is presented which simplifies the computation of the pair creation rate. We argue that the world-line instanton me…
A detailed study of the semiclassical expansion of the world line path integral for a charged relativistic particle in a constant external electric field is presented. We show that the Schwinger formula for charged particle pair production is reproduced exactly by the semiclassical expansion around classical instanton solutions when the leading order of fluctuations is taken into account. We prove that all corrections to this leading approximation vanish and that the WKB approximation to the world line path integral is exact.
We demonstrate that the (s-wave) geometric spectrum of the Efimov energy levels in the unitary limit is generated by the radial motion of a primitive periodic orbit (and its harmonics) of the corresponding classical system. The action of the primitive orbit depends logarithmically on the energy. It is shown to be consistent with an inverse-squared radial potential with a lower cut-off radius. The lowest-order WKB quantization, including the Langer correction, is shown to reproduce the geometric scaling of the energy spectrum. The (WKB) mean-squared radii of the Efimov states scale geometricall…
In this paper we study scattering of two-dimensional massless Dirac fermions by a potential that depends on a single Cartesian variable. Depending on the energy of the incoming particle and its angle of incidence, there are three different regimes of scattering. To find the reflection and transmission coefficients in these regimes, we apply the Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB), also called semiclassical, approximation. We use the method of comparison equations to extend our prediction to nearly normal incidence, where the conventional WKB method should be modified due to the degeneracy of turni…
We justify the WKB analysis for generalized nonlinear Schr{ö}dinger equations (NLS), including the hyperbolic NLS and the Davey-Stewartson II system. Since the leading order system in this analysis is not hyperbolic, we work with analytic regularity, with a radius of analyticity decaying with time, in order to obtain better energy estimates. This provides qualitative information regarding equations for which global well-posedness in Sobolev spaces is widely open.
We present a semiclassical analysis of the quantum propagator of a particle confined on one side by a steeply, monotonically rising potential. The models studied in detail have potentials proportional to $x^α$ for $x>0$; the limit $α\to\infty$ would reproduce a perfectly reflecting boundary, but at present we concentrate on the cases $α=1$ and 2, for which exact solutions in terms of well known functions are available for comparison. We classify the classical paths in this system by their qualitative nature and calculate the contributions of the various classes to the leading-order semiclassic…
We propose a renormalization process of a two phase WKB solution, which is based on an appropriate surgery of local uniform asymptotic approximations of the Wigner transform of the WKB solution. We explain in details how this process provides the correct spatial variation and frequency scales of the wave field on the caustics where WKB method fails. The analysis has been thoroughly presented in the case of a fundamental problem, that is the semiclassical Airy equation, which arises from the model problem of acoustic propagation in a layer with linear variation of the sound speed.
In this note, we prove weighted resolvent estimates for the semiclassical Schrödinger operator $-h^2 Δ+ V(x) : L^2(\mathbb{R}^n) \to L^2(\mathbb{R}^n)$, $n \neq 2$. The potential $V$ is real-valued, and assumed to either decay at infinity or to obey a radial $α$-Hölder continuity condition, $0\leq α\leq 1$, with sufficient decay of the local radial $C^α$ norm toward infinity. Note, however, that in the Hölder case, the potential need \emph{not} decay. If the dimension $n \ge 3$, the resolvent bound is of the form $\exp \left(C h^{-1 - \frac{1 - α}{3 + α}} [(1-α) \log(h^{-1})+c]\right)$, while …
We prove that radial, monotonic, superexponentially decaying potentials in R^n, n greater than or equal to 1 odd, are determined by the resonances of the associated semiclassical Schrodinger operator among all superexponentially decaying potentials in R^n.
In accordance with the Keller-Maslov global WKB theory, a semiclassical scalar wave field is best encoded as a triple consisting of (i) a Lagrangian submanifold $Λ$ in the ray phase space, (ii) a density $μ$ on $Λ$, and (iii) an overall phase factor $ϕ$. We present the Hamiltonian structure of the Cauchy problem for such a "geometric semiclassical state" in the special case where the wave operator is Hermetian. Variational, symplectic, and Poisson formulations of the time evolution equations for $(Λ,μ,ϕ)$ are identitfied. Because we work in terms of the Keller-Maslov global WKB ansatz, as oppo…
We consider semiclassical Schrödinger operators on the real line of the form $$H(\hbar)=-\hbar^2 \frac{d^2}{dx^2}+V(\cdot;\hbar)$$ with $\hbar>0$ small. The potential $V$ is assumed to be smooth, positive and exponentially decaying towards infinity. We establish semiclassical global representations of Jost solutions $f_\pm(\cdot,E;\hbar)$ with error terms that are uniformly controlled for small $E$ and $\hbar$, and construct the scattering matrix as well as the semiclassical spectral measure associated to $H(\hbar)$. This is crucial in order to obtain decay bounds for the corresponding wave an…
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 the Schrödinger operator $H_{ηW} = -Δ+ ηW$, self-adjoint in $L^2({\mathbb R}^d)$, $d \geq 1$. Here $η$ is a non constant almost periodic function, while $W$ decays slowly and regularly at infinity. We study the asymptotic behaviour of the discrete spectrum of $H_{ηW}$ near the origin, and due to the irregular decay of $ηW$, we encounter some non semiclassical phenomena. In particular, $H_{ηW}$ has less eigenvalues than suggested by the semiclassical intuition.
We study solutions of $2 \times 2$ systems $(h D_t + \mathcal{D}) Ψ_t = 0$ on $\mathbb{R}^2$ in the semiclassical regime $h \rightarrow 0$. Our Dirac operator $\mathcal{D}$ is a standard model for interfaces between topological insulators: it represents a semimetal at null energy, and distinct topological phases at positive / negative energies. Its semiclassical symbol has two opposite eigenvalues, intersecting conically along the curve $Γ$ of positions / momenta where the material behaves like a semimetal. We prove that wavepackets solving $(h D_t + \mathcal{D}) Ψ_t = 0$, initially concentrat…
As a model for the semiclassical analysis of quantum-mechanical systems with both potentials and boundary conditions, we construct the WKB propagator for a linear potential sloping away from an impenetrable boundary. First, we find all classical paths from point $y$ to point $x$ in time $t$ and calculate the corresponding action and amplitude functions. A large part of space-time turns out to be classically inaccessible, and the boundary of this region is a caustic of an unusual type, where the amplitude vanishes instead of diverging. We show that this curve is the limit of caustics in the usu…
The transfer matrix of a possibly complex and energy-dependent scattering potential can be identified with the $S$-matrix of a two-level time-dependent non-Hermitian Hamiltonian H(t). We show that the application of the adiabatic approximation to H(t) corresponds to the semiclassical description of the original scattering problem. In particular, the geometric part of the phase of the evolving eigenvectors of H(t) gives the pre-exponential factor of the WKB wave functions. We use these observations to give an explicit semiclassical expression for the transfer matrix. This allows for a detailed …
In this thesis, we construct an approximate series solution of the Wigner equation in terms of Airy functions, which are semiclassically concentrated on certain Lagrangian curves in two-dimensional phase space. These curves are defined by the eigenvalues and the Hamiltonian function of the associated one-dimensional Schrödinger operator, and they play a crucial role in the quantum interference mechanism in phase space. We assume that the potential of the Schrödinger operator is a single potential well, such that the spectrum is discrete. The construction starts from an eigenfunction series exp…
The defocusing Davey-Stewartson II equation has been shown in numerical experiments to exhibit behavior in the semiclassical limit that qualitatively resembles that of its one-dimensional reduction, the defocusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation, namely the generation from smooth initial data of regular rapid oscillations occupying domains of space-time that become well-defined in the limit. As a first step to study this problem analytically using the inverse-scattering transform, we consider the direct spectral transform for the defocusing Davey-Stewartson II equation for smooth initial data i…
The Small-Dispersion Limit of the Intermediate Long Wave Equation via Semiclassical Soliton Ensembles
School of Data, Mathematics and Statistical Sciences, University of Central Florida（中佛罗里达大学数据、数学与统计科学学院）；Department of Physics, University of Michigan（密歇根大学物理系）
We consider a semiclassical linear Boltzmann model with a non local collision operator. We provide sharp spectral asymptotics for the small spectrum in the low temperature regime from which we deduce the rate of return to equilibrium as well as a metastability result. The main ingredients are resolvent estimates obtained via hypocoercive techniques and the construction of sharp Gaussian quasimodes through an adaptation of the WKB method.
