Exponentially small adiabatic invariant for the Schrödinger equation (Q1180478)

The time dependent Schrödinger equation is considered in the adiabatic limit. The family of Hamiltonians \(H\) depends analytically on time, the operators may be unbounded. It is proved that the transition probability across a gap in the spectrum of \(H\) decays exponentially in the adiabatic parameter. The notion of dissipative path is used to obtain the result. There is no information on the behaviour of the constant on the width of the gap. Related works are: \textit{V. Jaksic}, \textit{J. Segert} [Exp. approach to the adiabatic limit, Caltech preprint (1990)]; \textit{G. Nenciu} [Linear adiabatic theory, ETH preprint (1992)].