Stability of coulomb systems with magnetic fields

The ground state energy of an atom in the presence of an external magnetic filedB (with the electron spin-field interaction included) can be arbitrarity negative whenB is arbitrarily large. We inquire whether stability can be restored by adding the self energy of the field, B ². For a hydrogenic like atom we prove that there is a critical nuclear charge,z _c , such that the atom is stable forz<z _c and unstable forz>z _c .Work partically supported by U.S. National Scinece Foundation grant DMS-8405264 during the author's stay at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, USAWork partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant PHY-8116101-A03Work partially supported by U.S. and Swiss National Science Foundation Cooperative Science Program INT-8503858. Current address: Institut f. Mathematik, FU Berlin, Arnimallee 3, D-1000 Berlin 33     

Phase transitions in anisotropic lattice spin systems

A general method for proving the existence of phase transitions is presented and applied to six nearest neighbor models, both classical and quantum mechanical, on the two dimensional square lattice. Included are some two dimensional Heisenberg models. All models are anisotropic in the sense that the groundstate is only finitely degenerate. Using our method which combines a Peierls argument with reflection positivity, i.e. chessboard estimates, and the principle of exponential localization we show that five of them have long range order at sufficiently low temperature. A possible exception is the quantum mechanical, anisotropic Heisenberg ferromagnet for which reflection positivity isnot proved, but for which the rest of the proof is valid.Work partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant no. MPS 75-11864Work partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant no. MCS 75-21684 A01     

TheN 7/5 law for charged bosons

Non-relativistic bosons interacting with Coulomb forces are unstable, as Dyson showed 20 years ago, in the sense that the ground state energy satisfiesE ₀–AN ^7/5. We prove that 7/5 is the correct power by proving thatE ₀–BN ^7/5. For the non-relativistic bosonic, one-component jellium problem, Foldy and Girardeau showed thatE ₀–CN^1/4. This 1/4 law is also validated here by showing thatE ₀–DN^1/4. These bounds prove that the Bogoliubov type paired wave function correctly predicts the order of magnitude of the energy.Work partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant DMS 8600748Work partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant PHY85-15288-A01Work supported by Alfred Sloan Foundation dissertation fellowship     

Proof of an entropy conjecture of Wehrl

Wehrl has proposed a new definition of classical entropy,S, in terms of coherent states and conjectured thatS1. A proof of this is given. We discuss the analogous problem for Bloch coherent spin states, but in this case the conjecture is still open. An inequality for the entropy of convolutions is also given.Work partially supported by US National Science Foundation grant MCS 75-21684 A02     

Spectral gap and logarithmic Sobolev inequality for Kawasaki and Glauber dynamics

We prove that the spectral gap of the Kawasaki dynamics shrink at the rate of 1/L ² for cubes of sizeL provided that some mixing conditions are satisfied. We also prove that the logarithmic Sobolev inequality for the Glauber dynamics in standard cubes holds uniformly in the size of the cube if the Dobrushin-Shlosman mixing condition holds for standard cubes.Research partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant 9101196, Sloan Foundation Fellowship and David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship     

Quantum coherent operators: A generalization of coherent states

We introduce a technique to compare different, but related, quantum systems, thereby generalizing the way that coherent states are used to compare quantum systems to classical systems in semiclassical analysis. We then use this technique to estimate the dependence of the free energy of the quantum Heisenberg model on the spin value, and to estimate the relation between the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic free energies.Work supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation grant PHY-9019433.Work supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation grant DMS-9002416.     

The classical limit of quantum spin systems

We derive a classical integral representation for the partition function,Z ^Q , of a quantum spin system. With it we can obtain upper and lower bounds to the quantum free energy (or ground state energy) in terms of two classical free energies (or ground state energies). These bounds permit us to prove that when the spin angular momentumJ (but after the thermodynamic limit) the quantum free energy (or ground state energy) is equal to the classical value. In normal cases, our inequality isZ ^C (J)Z ^Q (J)Z ^C (J+1).On leave from the Department of Mathematics, M.I.T., Cambridge, Mass. 02139, USA. Work partially supported by National Science Foundation Grant GP-31674X and by a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship.     

The positivity of the pressure in Thomas Fermi theory

We prove the positivity of the pressure and compressibility for neutral systems in the Thomas-Fermi theory of molecules. Our results include some new properties of the Thomas-Fermi potential and a proof that the kinetic energy is superadditive.Work partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant MCS 75-21684 A02On leave from Department of Physics, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile     

Lower bounds for resonance widths in potential and obstacle scattering

Explicit lower bounds are given for the size of the imaginary parts of resonances for Schrödinger operators with non-trapping or trapping potentials, and for the Dirichlet Laplacian in the exterior of a star-shaped obstacle, both acting in three dimensions.Work partially supported by DiUC/FONDECYT (Chile)Work partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant DMS 8705610     

The Chandrasekhar theory of stellar collapse as the limit of quantum mechanics

Starting with a relativistic Schrödinger Hamiltonian for neutral gravitating particles, we prove that as the particle numberN and the gravitation constantG0 we obtain the well known semiclassical theory for the ground state of stars. For fermions, the correct limit is to fixGN ^2/3 and the Chandrasekhar formula is obtained. For bosons the correct limit is to fixGN and a Hartree type equation is obtained. In the fermion case we also prove that the semiclassical equation has a unique solution — a fact which had not been established previously.Dedicated to Walter Thirring on his 60^th birthdayWork partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant PHY 85-15288-A01Work supported by Alfred Sloan Foundation dissertation Fellowship     

Ground State Energy of the Two-Component Charged Bose Gas

We continue the study of the two-component charged Bose gas initiated by Dyson in 1967. He showed that the ground state energy for N particles is at least as negative as –CN^7/5 for large N and this power law was verified by a lower bound found by Conlon, Lieb and Yau in 1988. Dyson conjectured that the exact constant C was given by a mean-field minimization problem that used, as input, Foldys calculation (using Bogolubovs 1947 formalism) for the one-component gas. Earlier we showed that Foldys calculation is exact insofar as a lower bound of his form was obtained. In this paper we do the same thing for Dysons conjecture. The two-component case is considerably more difficult because the gas is very non-homogeneous in its ground state.Dedicated to Freeman J. Dyson on the occasion of his 80th birthday©2003 by the authors. This article may be reproduced in its entirety for non-commercial purposes.Work partially supported by NSF grant DMS-0111298, by EU grant HPRN-CT-2002-00277, by MaPhySto – A Network in Mathematical Physics and Stochastics, funded by The Danish National Research Foundation, and by grants from the Danish research council.Work partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant PHY01 39984-A01.     

Probabilistic methods for stationary problems of linear transport theory

The steady state of a system of independent particles which undergo elastic collisions can be expressed in terms of the absorption probabilities of the associated Markov process. For the slab albedo problem, this representation enables the application of probabilistic methods to obtain explicit upper and lower bounds on the steady-state density. In particular, the bounds prove the 1/L, decrease of the steady-state flux as a function of the slab widthL (Fick's law).Supported in part by U.S. National Science Foundation grant MCS 75-21684 A02.On leave of absence from Fachbereich Physik, UniversitÄt Mönchen. Work supported by a DFG research fellowship.     

Deriving Energy-Gap of Some Hamiltonians with Kinetic Coupling by the Invariant Eigen-Operator Method

We begin with proposing a unitary operator responsible for diagonalizing the Hamiltonian with kinetic couplings in particle physics to get a new form of Hamiltonian which has no coupling terms. By virtue of the invariant eigen-operator (IEO) method we search for the invariant eigen-operators for the new Hamiltonian. In this way the energy-gap of the Hamiltonians can be naturally obtained. This method may be generalized to N-mode Hamiltonian with kinetic couplings case. Work supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant 10475056 and Foundation of President of Chinese Academy of Science.     

New hierarchies of knot polynomials from topological Chern-Simons gauge theory

In this Letter, we report on a study of the expectation values of Wilson loops in D=3 topological Chern-Simons theory associated with the fundamental representation of the simple Lie algebras SO(n) and Sp(n). The skein relations satisfied by these expectation values are derived by conformal field-theory techniques. New hierarchies of invariant polynomials for knots in S ³ can be derived from these relations (at least) up to ten crossings. The N=3 Akutsu-Wadati polynomials are a special case with G=SO(3). The expectation value of the Wilson loops for a couple of simple unknotted circles is identified to the Weyl character.Work supported in part by U.S. National Science Foundation Grant PHY8706501.Work supported in party by Chinese National Science Foundation through Nankai University.     

Asymptotics of heavy atoms in high magnetic fields: II. Semiclassical regions

The ground state energy of an atom of nuclear chargeZe in a magnetic fieldB is exactly evaluated to leading order asZ in the following three regions:BZ ^4/3,BZ ^4/3 andZ ^4/3BZ³. In each case this is accomplished by a modified Thomas-Fermi (TF) type theory. We also analyze these TF theories in detail, one of their consequences being the nonintuitive fact that atoms are spherical (to leading order) despite the leading order change in energy due to theB field. This paper complements and completes our earlier analysis [1], which was primarily devoted to the regionsBZ ³ andBZ³ in which a semiclassical TF analysis is numerically and conceptually wrong. There are two main mathematical results in this paper, needed for the proof of the exactitude of the TF theories. One is a generalization of the Lieb-Thirring inequality for sums of eigenvalues to include magnetic fields. The second is a semiclassical asymptotic formula for sums of eigenvalues that isuniform in the fieldB.Work partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant PHY90-19433 A02Work partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant DMS 92-03829Work partially supported by the Heraeus Stiftung and the Research Fund of the University of Iceland.     

Hydrodynamical limit for a Hamiltonian system with weak noise

Starting from a general hamiltonian system with superstable pairwise potential, we construct a stochastic dynamics by adding a noise term which exchanges the momenta of nearby particles. We prolve that, in the scaling limit, the time conserved quantities, energy, momenta and density, satisfy the Euler equation of conservation laws up to a fixed timet provided that the Euler equation has a smooth solution with a given initial data up to timet. The strength of the noise term is chosen to be very small (but nonvanishing) so that it disappears in the scaling limit.Research partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grants DMS 89001682, DMS 920-1222 and a grant from ARO, DAAL03-92-G-0317Research partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grants DMS-9101196, DMS-9100383, and PHY-9019433-A01, Sloan Foundation Fellowship and David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship     

The comoving coordinate frame for differentially rotating,relativistic bodies

A first-order, ordinary differential equation is derived that can in principle be integrated for any assumed rotation law = (r) within a relativistic, perfect-fluid body. The solution of this equation reduces the number of unknown metric functions appearing in the line element for the spacetime of such differentially rotating bodies to three. In the case of rigid rotation this is equivalent to a result of Harrison.Work supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation under grant No. MPS 74-15524.     

Rayleigh Scattering at Atoms with Dynamical Nuclei

Scattering of photons at an atom with a dynamical nucleus is studied on the subspace of states of the system with a total energy below the threshold for ionization of the atom (Rayleigh scattering). The kinematics of the electron and the nucleus is chosen to be non-relativistic, and their spins are neglected. In a simplified model of a hydrogen atom or a one-electron ion interacting with the quantized radiation field in which the helicity of photons is neglected and the interactions between photons and the electron and nucleus are turned off at very high photon energies and at photon energies below an arbitrarily small, but fixed energy (infrared cutoff), asymptotic completeness of Rayleigh scattering is established rigorously. On the way towards proving this result, it is shown that, after coupling the electron and the nucleus to the photons, the atom still has a stable ground state, provided its center of mass velocity is smaller than the velocity of light; but its excited states are turned into resonances. The proof of asymptotic completeness then follows from extensions of a positive commutator method and of propagation estimates for the atom and the photons developed in previous papers. The methods developed in this paper can be extended to more realistic models. It is, however, not known, at present, how to remove the infrared cutoff. Activities supported, in part, by a grant from the Swiss National Foundation. Work partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant DMS 01-00160. Supported by a NSF postdoctoral fellowship.     

Master Analytic Representations and unified representation theory of certain orthogonal and pseudo-orthogonal groups

The representation theory of the groupsSO(5),SO(4, 1),SO(6) andSO(5, 1) is studied using the method of Master Analytic Representations (MAR). It is shown that a single analytic expression for the matrix elements of the generators ofSO(n+1) andSO(n, 1) in anSO(n) basis yields all the unitary representations (forn=4,5); and that the compact and non-compact groups have essentially the same analytic representation. Once the MAR of a group is worked out, the search for the unitary irreducible representations is reduced to a purely arithmetic operation. The utmost care has been exercised to conduct the discussions at an elementary level: knowledge of simple angular momentum theory is the only prerequisite.Work supported in part by the National Science Foundation.Work supported in part by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.     

The Thermodynamic Limit for Matter Interacting with Coulomb Forces and with the Quantized Electromagnetic Field: I. The Lower Bound

The proof of the existence of the thermodynamic limit for electrons and nuclei interacting via the Coulomb potential, was accomplished decades ago in the framework of non-relativistic quantum mechanics, . This result did not take account of interactions caused by magnetic fields, however, (the spin-spin interaction, in particular) or of the quantized nature of the electromagnetic field. Recent progress has made it possible to undertake such a proof in the context of non-relativistic QED. This paper contains one part of such a proof by giving a lower bound to the free energy that is proportional to the number of particles and which takes account of the fact that the field, unlike the particles, is never confined to a finite volume. In the earlier proof the lower bound was a ‘two line’ corollary of the ‘stability of matter’. In QED the proof is much more complicated.©2004 by the authors. This paper may be reproduced, in its entirety, for non-commercial purposes.Work partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant PHY 01-39984.Work partially supported by U.S. National Science Foundation grant DMS 03-00349.