Quantum ergodicity for pseudo-Laplacians (Q2078941)

\textit{A. I. Shnirel'man} announced in [Usp. Mat. Nauk 29, No. 6(180), 181--182 (1974; Zbl 0324.58020)] a general result concerning the ergodicity of geodesic flows on compact manifolds, but his proof was not complete, subsequently \textit{S. Zelditch} [Duke Math. J. 55, 919--941 (1987; Zbl 0643.58029)] presented a complete proof, for the case of manifolds with non-negative curvature, making use of pseudo differential tools adapted to hyperbolic geometry (see also [\textit{J. Fröhlich} and \textit{C.-E. Pfister}, Commun. Math. Phys. 104, 697--700 (1986; Zbl 0592.58016)]). It was then established the quantum ergodicity of geodesic flows on closed manifolds. New important techniques were later introduced in [\textit{S. Zelditch} and \textit{M. Zworski}, Commun. Math. Phys. 175, No. 3, 673--682 (1996; Zbl 0840.58048)]. While quantum ergodicity means that for quantum systems with ergodic classic flow almost all high-frequency eigenfunctions are equidistributed in phase-space, quantum unique ergodicity assures instead that all high-frequency eigenfunctions are equidistributed. For a nice concise description of quantum unique ergodicity and quantum ergodicity, and their wide applications landscape, see [\textit{P. Sarnak}, Proc. Symp. Pure Math. 84, 211--228 (2012; Zbl 1317.58036)]. As a natural extension of the initial results, \textit{P. Gérard} and \textit{E. Leichtnam} [Duke Math. J. 71, No. 2, 559--607 (1993; Zbl 0788.35103)], and Zelditch and Zworski, in their above quoted paper, investigated the case of manifolds with boundary. In this paper the author deals with the case of quantum ergodicity for the eigenfunctions of the pseudo-Laplacian on surfaces with hyperbolic cusps and ergodic geodesic flows. According to the author, the problem of quantum ergodicity for the eigenfunctions of the pseudo-Laplacian was first proposed, in a private communication, by S. Zelditch. To handle the several difficulties brought up by dealing with pseudo-Laplacian on a non-compact manifold, the author makes use of some known techniques introduced by Colin de Verdière, Zelditch, among others and recent work by \textit{Y. Bonthonneau} [Commun. Math. Phys. 343, No. 1, 311--359 (2016; Zbl 1354.58031)] and \textit{S. Dyatlov} [J. Spectr. Theory 2, No. 2, 181--202 (2012; Zbl 1241.58015)]. Assuming, for the sake of simplicity that there is just one cusp, through his own new approach, a sequel of technical lemmas leads to the proof that the eigenfunctions of the pseudo-Laplacian are microlocalized in the cusp, from a variance bound result and an Egoroff type theorem, the main result of the paper follows.