Resonance expansions of propagators in the presence of potential barriers

We show that the Schrödinger propagator can be expanded in terms of resonances at energy levels at which a barrier separates the interaction region from infinity. The expansions hold for all times with errors small in the semi-classical parameter. As a byproduct we obtain a result on the approximation of clusters of resonant states by clusters of eigenfunctions of a self-adjoint reference operator.     

SchröDinger operators - geometric estimates in terms of the occupation time

The difference of Schrödinger and Dirichlet semigroups is expressed in terms of the Laplace transform of the Brownian motion occupation time. This implies quantitative upper and lower bounds for the operator norms of the corresponding resolvent differences. One spectral theoretical consequence is an estimate for the eigenfunction for a Schrödinger operator in a ball where the potential is given as a cone indicator function.     

Feynman path integrals as infinite-dimensional oscillatory integrals: Some new developments

We discuss a basic mathematical approach to Feynman path integrals as infinite-dimensional oscillatory integrals. We present new results on asymptotics of such integrals which exploit recently developed approximation techniques via finite dimensional oscillatory integrals. Applications are also given, namely to the study of the trace of the time evolution operator in quantum mechanics and to the interpretation of Gutzwiller's trace formula as a leading term in an asymptotic expansion around classical periodic orbits.The second named author is an Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung fellow.     

The Wigner–Poisson–Fokker–Planck system: global-in-time solution and dispersive effects

This paper is concerned with the Wigner–Poisson–Fokker–Planck system, a kinetic evolution equation for an open quantum system with a non-linear Hartree potential. Existence, uniqueness and regularity of global solutions to the Cauchy problem in 3 dimensions are established. The analysis is carried out in a weighted L²$L^2$-space, such that the linear quantum Fokker–Planck operator generates a dissipative semigroup. The non-linear potential can be controlled by using the parabolic regularization of the system.     

Rank one perturbations of not semibounded operators

Rank one perturbations of selfadjoint operators which are not necessarily semibounded are studied in the present paper. It is proven that such perturbations are uniquely defined, if they are bounded in the sense of forms. We also show that form unbounded rank one perturbations can be uniquely defined if the original operator and the perturbation are homogeneous with respect to a certain one parameter semigroup. The perturbed operator is defined using the extension theory for symmetric operators. The resolvent of the perturbed operator is calculated using Krein's formula. It is proven that every rank one perturbation can be approximated in the operator norm. We prove that some form unbounded perturbations can be approximated in the strong resolvent sense without renormalization of the coupling constant only if the original operator is not semibounded. The present approach is applied to study first derivative and Dirac operators with point interaction, in one dimension.     

Maximum principles for anisotropic elliptic inequalities

We establish some maximum and comparison principles for weak distributional solutions of anisotropic elliptic inequalities in divergence form, both in the homogeneous and non-homogeneous cases. The main prototypes we have in mind are inequalities involving the p(⋅)$p(\cdot )$-Laplace operator and the generalized mean curvature operator.     

The spectrum of relativistic atoms according to Bethe and Salpeter and beyond

We review Evans’ contributions to the spectral theory of operators describing relativistic particle systems. We will concentrate on no-pair operators and recent extensions of that work.     

Derivation of Hartreeʼs theory for generic mean-field Bose systems

In this paper we provide a novel strategy to prove the validity of Hartree?s theory for the ground state energy of bosonic quantum systems in the mean-field regime. For the known case of trapped Bose gases, this can be shown using the strong quantum de Finetti theorem, which gives the structure of infinite hierarchies of k-particles density matrices. Here we deal with the case where some particles are allowed to escape to infinity, leading to a lack of compactness. Our approach is based on two ingredients: (1) a weak version of the quantum de Finetti theorem, and (2) geometric techniques for many-body systems. Our strategy does not rely on any special property of the interaction between the particles. In particular, our results cover those of Benguria–Lieb and Lieb–Yau for, respectively, bosonic atoms and boson stars.     

Substochastic semigroups for transport equations with conservative boundary conditions

We consider the free streaming operator associated with conservative boundary conditions. It is known that this operator (with its usual domain) admits an extension A which generates a C₀-semigroup in L¹. With techniques borrowed from the additive perturbation theory of substochastic semigroups, we describe precisely its domain and provide necessary and sufficient conditions ensuring to be stochastic. We apply these results to examples from kinetic theory.     

Stationary phase method in infinite dimensions by finite dimensional approximations: Applications to the Schrödinger equation

We develop an approach by finite dimensional approximations for the study of infinite dimensional oscillatory integrals and the relative method of stationary phase. We provide detailed asymptotic expansions in the nondegenerate as well as in the degenerate case. We also give applications to the derivation of detailed asymptotic expansions in Planck's constant for the Schrödinger equation.     

Convergence to equilibrium for the Cahn–Hilliard equation with a logarithmic free energy

In this paper we investigate the asymptotic behavior of the nonlinear Cahn–Hilliard equation with a logarithmic free energy and similar singular free energies. We prove an existence and uniqueness result with the help of monotone operator methods, which differs from the known proofs based on approximation by smooth potentials. Moreover, we apply the Lojasiewicz–Simon inequality to show that each solution converges to a steady state as time tends to infinity.     

Sharp upper bounds on the number of the scattering poles

We study the scattering poles of a compactly supported “black box” perturbations of the Laplacian in Rⁿ, n odd. We prove a sharp upper bound of the counting function N(r) modulo o(rⁿ) in terms of the counting function of the reference operator in the smallest ball around the black box. In the most interesting cases, we prove a bound of the type N(r)?A_nrⁿ+o(rⁿ) with an explicit A_n. We prove that this bound is sharp in a few special spherically symmetric cases where the bound turns into an asymptotic formula.     

Kreĭn–Saakyan and Trace Formulas for a Pair of Canonical Differential Operators

An analog of the Kreĭn–Saakyan formula is derived for any pair of relatively prime self-adjoint extensions of a minimal symmetric canonical differential operator. This allows us to deduce a trace formula in the matrix case. I am grateful to Sh. Saakyan for his interest in this work and lively discussion. Received: December 8, 2006. Accepted: December 30, 2006.     

The invertibility of the product of unbounded Toeplitz operators

In this note I give necessary and sufficient conditions on outer functionsf andg for the operator to be bounded and invertible on H². I also discuss the relationship of this question to two open questions in operator theory and weighted norm inequalities.     

Spectral and phase space analysis of the linearized non-cutoff Kac collision operator

The non-cutoff Kac operator is a kinetic model for the non-cutoff radially symmetric Boltzmann operator. For Maxwellian molecules, the linearization of the non-cutoff Kac operator around a Maxwellian distribution is shown to be a function of the harmonic oscillator, to be diagonal in the Hermite basis and to be essentially a fractional power of the harmonic oscillator. This linearized operator is a pseudodifferential operator, and we provide a complete asymptotic expansion for its symbol in a class enjoying a nice symbolic calculus. Related results for the linearized non-cutoff radially symmetric Boltzmann operator are also proven.     

Shell interactions for Dirac operators

The self-adjointness of H+V$H+V$ is studied, where H=−iα⋅∇+mβ$H=-i\alpha \cdot \mathrm{\nabla }+m\beta$ is the free Dirac operator in R³${\mathbb{R}}^3$ and V is a measure-valued potential. The potentials V under consideration are given by singular measures with respect to the Lebesgue measure, with special attention to surface measures of bounded regular domains. The existence of non-trivial eigenfunctions with zero eigenvalue naturally appears in our approach, which is based on well known estimates for the trace operator defined on classical Sobolev spaces and some algebraic identities of the Cauchy operator associated to H.     

Nonlinear and multiplicative inequalities in Sobolev spaces associated with Lie algebras

This paper is devoted to multiplicative inequalities in some generalized Sobolev spaces associated with Lie algebras. These Lie algebras are generated by the differential operator of variable coefficients or by pseudo-differential operators having non-regular symbols. Under geometrical assumptions we show that the norms of two suitable classes of generalized Sobolev spaces are equivalent. This leads to the proof that the composition operator u→|u|^p$u\to {\left|u\right|}^p$ acts on such spaces.     

Positivity preserving property for a class of biharmonic elliptic problems

The lack of a general maximum principle for biharmonic equations suggests to study under which boundary conditions the positivity preserving property holds. We show that this property holds in general domains for suitable linear combinations of Dirichlet and Navier boundary conditions. The spectrum of this operator exhibits some unexpected features: radial data may generate nonradial solutions. These boundary conditions are also of some interest in semilinear equations, since they enable us to give explicit radial singular solutions to fourth order Gelfand-type problems.     

A precise pseudodifferential Foldy-Wouthuysen transform for the Dirac equation

We will discuss existence of a unitary pseudodifferential operator U in our algebra of strictly classical pseudodifferential operators on such that U precisely decouples the electronic and positronic part of the Dirac equation, for rather general potentials, and without supersymmetry. Interestingly, an obstruction appears: On may have to remove a finite dimensional space of electronic states, and declare them as positronic, or, vice versa, depending on a certain deficiency index. Possibly, this index is nonzero if electronic bound states penetrate into the positronic continuous spectrum, or vice versa.     

Unbounded quantum graphs with unbounded boundary conditions

We consider metric graphs with a uniform lower bound on the edge lengths but no further restrictions. We discuss how to describe every local self‐adjoint Laplace operator on such graphs by boundary conditions in the vertices given by projections and self‐adjoint operators. We then characterize the lower bounded self‐adjoint Laplacians and determine their associated quadratic form in terms of the operator families encoding the boundary conditions.