Estimate of the difference between the Kac operator and the Schrödinger semigroup (Q1360573)

The authors establish an \(L^p\)-operator norm estimate of the difference between the Kac operator and the Schrödinger semigroup. This estimate is used to give a variant of the Trotter product formula for the Schrödinger operator \((1/2)\Delta+V\) in the \(L^p\)-operator norm. This extends Helffer's result in the \(L^2\)-operator norm to the case of the \(L^p\)-operator norm for more general scalar potentials and the magnetic Schrödinger operator \([-i\partial-A(x)]^2/2\) with vector potential \(A(x)\) including the case of constant magnetic fields. The method of proof is probabilistic and is based on the Feynman--Kac and Feynman-Kac-Itô formulae.