Orbit bifurcations and the scarring of wavefunctions

We extend the semiclassical theory of scarring of quantum eigenfunctions psi_{n}(q) by classical periodic orbits to include situations where these orbits undergo generic bifurcations. It is shown that |psi_{n}(q)|^{2}, averaged locally with respect to position q and the energy spectrum E_{n}, has structure around bifurcating periodic orbits with an amplitude and length-scale whose hbar-dependence is determined by the bifurcation in question. Specifically, the amplitude scales as hbar^{alpha} and the length-scale as hbar^{w}, and values of the scar exponents, alpha and w, are computed for a variety of generic bifurcations. In each case, the scars are semiclassically wider than those associated with isolated and unstable periodic orbits; moreover, their amplitude is at least as large, and in most cases larger. In this sense, bifurcations may be said to give rise to superscars. The competition between the contributions from different bifurcations to determine the moments of the averaged eigenfunction amplitude is analysed. We argue that there is a resulting universal hbar-scaling in the semiclassical asymptotics of these moments for irregular states in systems with a mixed phase-space dynamics. Finally, a number of these predictions are illustrated by numerical computations for a family of perturbed cat maps.Comment: 24 pages, 6 Postscript figures, corrected some typo

Weyl's law and quantum ergodicity for maps with divided phase space

For a general class of unitary quantum maps, whose underlying classical phase space is divided into several invariant domains of positive measure, we establish analogues of Weyl's law for the distribution of eigenphases. If the map has one ergodic component, and is periodic on the remaining domains, we prove the Schnirelman-Zelditch-Colin de Verdiere Theorem on the equidistribution of eigenfunctions with respect to the ergodic component of the classical map (quantum ergodicity). We apply our main theorems to quantised linked twist maps on the torus. In the Appendix, S. Zelditch connects these studies to some earlier results on `pimpled spheres' in the setting of Riemannian manifolds. The common feature is a divided phase space with a periodic component.Comment: Colour figures. Black & white figures available at http://www2.maths.bris.ac.uk/~majm. Appendix by Steve Zelditc

Semiclassical measures and the Schroedinger flow on Riemannian manifolds

In this article we study limits of Wigner distributions (the so-called semiclassical measures) corresponding to sequences of solutions to the semiclassical Schroedinger equation at times scales $\alpha_{h}$ tending to infinity as the semiclassical parameter $h$ tends to zero (when $\alpha _{h}=1/h$ this is equivalent to consider solutions to the non-semiclassical Schreodinger equation). Some general results are presented, among which a weak version of Egorov's theorem that holds in this setting. A complete characterization is given for the Euclidean space and Zoll manifolds (that is, manifolds with periodic geodesic flow) via averaging formulae relating the semiclassical measures corresponding to the evolution to those of the initial states. The case of the flat torus is also addressed; it is shown that non-classical behavior may occur when energy concentrates on resonant frequencies. Moreover, we present an example showing that the semiclassical measures associated to a sequence of states no longer determines those of their evolutions. Finally, some results concerning the equation with a potential are presented.Comment: 18 pages; Theorems 1,2 extendend to deal with arbitrary time-scales; references adde

Quantum ergodicity for Pauli Hamiltonians with spin 1/2

Quantum ergodicity, which expresses the semiclassical convergence of almost all expectation values of observables in eigenstates of the quantum Hamiltonian to the corresponding classical microcanonical average, is proven for non-relativistic quantum particles with spin 1/2. It is shown that quantum ergodicity holds, if a suitable combination of the classical translational dynamics and the spin dynamics along the trajectories of the translational motion is ergodic.Comment: 20 pages, no figure

High energy limits of Laplace-type and Dirac-type eigenfunctions and frame flows

We relate high-energy limits of Laplace-type and Dirac-type operators to frame flows on the corresponding manifolds, and show that the ergodicity of frame flows implies quantum ergodicity in an appropriate sense for those operators. Observables for the corresponding quantum systems are matrix-valued pseudodifferential operators and therefore the system remains non-commutative in the high-energy limit. We discuss to what extent the space of stationary high-energy states behaves classically.Comment: 26 pages, latex2

Can One Hear the Shape of a Graph?

We show that the spectrum of the Schrodinger operator on a finite, metric graph determines uniquely the connectivity matrix and the bond lengths, provided that the lengths are non-commensurate and the connectivity is simple (no parallel bonds between vertices and no loops connecting a vertex to itself). That is, one can hear the shape of the graph! We also consider a related inversion problem: A compact graph can be converted into a scattering system by attaching to its vertices leads to infinity. We show that the scattering phase determines uniquely the compact part of the graph, under similar conditions as above.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur

Classical and quantum ergodicity on orbifolds

We extend to orbifolds classical results on quantum ergodicity due to Shnirelman, Colin de Verdi\`ere and Zelditch, proving that, for any positive, first-order self-adjoint elliptic pseudodifferential operator P on a compact orbifold X with positive principal symbol p, ergodicity of the Hamiltonian flow of p implies quantum ergodicity for the operator P. We also prove ergodicity of the geodesic flow on a compact Riemannian orbifold of negative sectional curvature.Comment: 14 page

Amplitude distribution of eigenfunctions in mixed systems

We study the amplitude distribution of irregular eigenfunctions in systems with mixed classical phase space. For an appropriately restricted random wave model a theoretical prediction for the amplitude distribution is derived and good agreement with numerical computations for the family of limacon billiards is found. The natural extension of our result to more general systems, e.g. with a potential, is also discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures. Some of the pictures are included in low resolution only. For a version with pictures in high resolution see http://www.physik.uni-ulm.de/theo/qc/ or http://www.maths.bris.ac.uk/~maab

On the rate of quantum ergodicity in Euclidean billiards

For a large class of quantized ergodic flows the quantum ergodicity theorem due to Shnirelman, Zelditch, Colin de Verdi\`ere and others states that almost all eigenfunctions become equidistributed in the semiclassical limit. In this work we first give a short introduction to the formulation of the quantum ergodicity theorem for general observables in terms of pseudodifferential operators and show that it is equivalent to the semiclassical eigenfunction hypothesis for the Wigner function in the case of ergodic systems. Of great importance is the rate by which the quantum mechanical expectation values of an observable tend to their mean value. This is studied numerically for three Euclidean billiards (stadium, cosine and cardioid billiard) using up to 6000 eigenfunctions. We find that in configuration space the rate of quantum ergodicity is strongly influenced by localized eigenfunctions like bouncing ball modes or scarred eigenfunctions. We give a detailed discussion and explanation of these effects using a simple but powerful model. For the rate of quantum ergodicity in momentum space we observe a slower decay. We also study the suitably normalized fluctuations of the expectation values around their mean, and find good agreement with a Gaussian distribution.Comment: 40 pages, LaTeX2e. This version does not contain any figures. A version with all figures can be obtained from http://www.physik.uni-ulm.de/theo/qc/ (File: http://www.physik.uni-ulm.de/theo/qc/ulm-tp/tp97-8.ps.gz) In case of any problems contact Arnd B\"acker (e-mail: [email protected]) or Roman Schubert (e-mail: [email protected]

Quantum ergodicity for restrictions to hypersurfaces

Quantum ergodicity theorem states that for quantum systems with ergodic classical flows, eigenstates are, in average, uniformly distributed on energy surfaces. We show that if N is a hypersurface in the position space satisfying a simple dynamical condition, the restrictions of eigenstates to N are also quantum ergodic.Comment: 22 pages, 1 figure; revised according to referee's comments. To appear in Nonlinearit