Semiclassical regularization of Vlasov equations and wavepackets for nonlinear Schrödinger equations

We consider the semiclassical limit of nonlinear Schr\"odinger equations with wavepacket initial data. We recover the Wigner measure of the problem, a macroscopic phase-space density which controls the propagation of the physical observables such as mass, energy and momentum. Wigner measures have been used to create effective models for wave propagation in random media, quantum molecular dynamics, mean field limits, and the propagation of electrons in graphene. In nonlinear settings, the Vlasov-type equations obtained for the Wigner measure are often ill-posed on the physically interesting spaces of initial data. In this paper we are able to select the measure-valued solution of the 1+1 dimensional Vlasov-Poisson equation which correctly captures the semiclassical limit, thus finally resolving the non-uniqueness in the seminal result of [Zhang, Zheng \& Mauser, Comm. Pure Appl. Math. (2002) 55, doi:10.1002/cpa.3017]. The same approach is also applied to the Vlasov-Dirac-Benney equation with small wavepacket initial data, extending several known results

Phase Resolved Simulation of the Landau–Alber Stability Bifurcation

It has long been known that plane wave solutions of the cubic nonlinear Schrödinger Equation (NLS) are linearly unstable. This fact is widely known as modulation instability (MI), and sometimes referred to as Benjamin–Feir instability in the context of water waves. In 1978, I.E. Alber introduced a methodology to perform an analogous linear stability analysis around a sea state with a known power spectrum, instead of around a plane wave. This analysis applies to second moments, and yields a stability criterion for power spectra. Asymptotically, it predicts that sufficiently narrow and high-intensity spectra are unstable, while sufficiently broad and low-intensity spectra are stable, which is consistent with empirical observations. The bifurcation between unstable and stable behaviour has no counterpart in the classical MI (where all plane waves are unstable), and we call it Landau–Alber bifurcation because the stable regime has been shown to be a case of Landau damping. In this paper, we work with the realistic power spectra of ocean waves, and for the first time, we produce clear, direct evidence for an abrupt bifurcation as the spectrum becomes narrow/intense enough. A fundamental ingredient of this work was to look directly at the nonlinear evolution of small, localised inhomogeneities, and whether these can grow dramatically. Indeed, one of the issues affecting previous investigations of this bifurcation seem to have been that they mostly looked for the indirect evidence of instability, such as an increase in overall extreme events. It is also found that a sufficiently large computational domain is crucial for the bifurcation to manifest

On a selection principle for multivalued semiclassical flows

We study the semiclassical behaviour of solutions of a Schr ̈odinger equation with a scalar po- tential displaying a conical singularity. When a pure state interacts strongly with the singularity of the flow, there are several possible classical evolutions, and it is not known whether the semiclassical limit cor- responds to one of them. Based on recent results, we propose that one of the classical evolutions captures the semiclassical dynamics; moreover, we propose a selection principle for the straightforward calculation of the regularized semiclassical asymptotics. We proceed to investigate numerically the validity of the proposed scheme, by employing a solver based on a posteriori error control for the Schr ̈odinger equation. Thus, for the problems we study, we generate rigorous upper bounds for the error in our asymptotic approximation. For 1-dimensional problems without interference, we obtain compelling agreement between the regularized asymptotics and the full solution. In problems with interference, there is a quantum effect that seems to survive in the classical limit. We discuss the scope of applicability of the proposed regularization approach, and formulate a precise conjecture

Modelling of Ocean Waves with the Alber Equation:Application to Non-Parametric Spectra and Generalisation to Crossing Seas

The Alber equation is a phase-averaged second-moment model for the statistics of a sea state, which recently has been attracting renewed attention. We extend it in two ways: firstly, we derive a generalized Alber system starting from a system of nonlinear Schr\"odinger equations, which contains the classical Alber equation as a special case but can also describe crossing seas, i.e. two wavesystems with different wavenumbers crossing. (These can be two completely independent wavenumbers, i.e. in general different directions and different moduli.) We also derive the associated 2-dimensional scalar instability condition. This is the first time that a modulation instability condition applicable to crossing seas has been systematically derived for general spectra. Secondly, we use the classical Alber equation and its associated instability condition to quantify how close a given non-parametric spectrum is to being modulationally unstable. We apply this to a dataset of 100 non-parametric spectra provided by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, and find the vast majority of realistic spectra turn out to be stable, but three extreme sea states are found to be unstable (out of 20 sea states chosen for their severity). Moreover, we introduce a novel "proximity to instability" (PTI) metric, inspired by the stability analysis. This is seen to correlate strongly with the steepness and Benjamin-Feir Index (BFI) for the sea states in our dataset (>85% Spearman rank correlation). Furthermore, upon comparing with phase-resolved broadband Monte Carlo simulations, the kurtosis and probability of rogue waves for each sea state are also seen to correlate well with its PTI (>85% Spearman rank correlation)

On the XFEL Schroedinger Equation: Highly Oscillatory Magnetic Potentials and Time Averaging

We analyse a nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation for the time-evolution of the wave function of an electron beam, interacting selfconsistently through a Hartree-Fock nonlinearity and through the repulsive Coulomb interaction of an atomic nucleus. The electrons are supposed to move under the action of a time dependent, rapidly periodically oscillating electromagnetic potential. This can be considered a simplified effective single particle model for an X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL). We prove the existence and uniqueness for the Cauchy problem and the convergence of wave-functions to corresponding solutions of a Schr\"odinger equation with a time-averaged Coulomb potential in the high frequency limit for the oscillations of the electromagnetic potential

Numerical simulations of X-rays Free Electron Lasers (XFEL)

We study a nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation which arises as an effective single particle model in X-ray Free Electron Lasers (XFEL). This equation appears as a first-principles model for the beam-matter interactions that would take place in an XFEL molecular imaging experiment in \cite{frat1}. Since XFEL is more powerful by several orders of magnitude than more conventional lasers, the systematic investigation of many of the standard assumptions and approximations has attracted increased attention. In this model the electrons move under a rapidly oscillating electromagnetic field, and the convergence of the problem to an effective time-averaged one is examined. We use an operator splitting pseudo-spectral method to investigate numerically the behaviour of the model versus its time-averaged version in complex situations, namely the energy subcritical/mass supercritical case, and in the presence of a periodic lattice. We find the time averaged model to be an effective approximation, even close to blowup, for fast enough oscillations of the external field. This work extends previous analytical results for simpler cases \cite{xfel1}.Comment: 14 page

Strong and weak semiclassical limits for some rough Hamiltonians

We present several results concerning the semiclassical limit of the time dependent Schr\"odinger equation with potentials whose regularity doesn't guarantee the uniqueness of the underlying classical flow. Different topologies for the limit are considered and the situation where two bicharateristics can be obtained out of the same initial point is emphasized

A novel, structure-preserving, second-order-in-time relaxation scheme for Schrödinger-Poisson systems

We introduce a new second order in time relaxation-type scheme for approximating solutions of the Schr\"odinger-Poisson system. More specifically, we use the Crank-Nicolson scheme as a time stepping mechanism, whilst the nonlinearity is handled by means of a relaxation approach in the spirit of \cite{Besse, KK} for the nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation. For the spatial discretisation we use the standard conforming finite element scheme. The resulting scheme is explicit with respect to the nonlinearity, satisfies discrete versions of the system's conservation laws, and is seen to be second order in time. We conclude by presenting some numerical experiments, including an example from cosmology, that demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the new scheme.Comment: 17pages, 10 figure

Coarse-scale representations and smoothed Wigner transforms

Smoothed Wigner transforms have been used in signal processing, as a regularized version of the Wigner transform, and have been proposed as an alternative to it in the homogenization and / or semiclassical limits of wave equations. We derive explicit, closed formulations for the coarse-scale representation of the action of pseudodifferential operators. The resulting ``smoothed operators'' are in general of infinite order. The formulation of an appropriate framework, resembling the Gelfand-Shilov spaces, is necessary. Similarly we treat the ``smoothed Wigner calculus''. In particular this allows us to reformulate any linear equation, as well as certain nonlinear ones (e.g. Hartree and cubic non-linear Schr\"odinger), as coarse-scale phase-space equations (e.g. smoothed Vlasov), with spatial and spectral resolutions controlled by two free parameters. Finally, it is seen that the smoothed Wigner calculus can be approximated, uniformly on phase-space, by differential operators in the semiclassical regime. This improves the respective weak-topology approximation result for the Wigner calculus.Comment: 58 pages, plain Te