Semiclassical asymptotics for weakly nonlinear Bloch waves (Q2507532)

The initial value problem is dealt with for the weakly nonlinear Schrödinger equation \[ \begin{aligned} i\varepsilon \partial_t \psi &= -\frac{\varepsilon^2}{2}\Delta \psi + V_{\Gamma}(\frac{x}{\varepsilon})\psi + U(x)\psi + \varepsilon\lambda(t)| \psi| ^{2\sigma}\psi, \quad (t,x) \in {\mathbb R}\times {\mathbb R}^d,\\ \psi| _{t=0} &= \psi_I^{\varepsilon}(x) \end{aligned} \] with a small positive parameter \(\varepsilon\), where \(\sigma\) is a positive integer. The functions \(\lambda\), \(U\) and \(V_{\Gamma}\) are all smooth and real-valued, \(U\) being sub-quadratic and \(V_{\Gamma}\) being uniformly bounded, \(\Gamma\)-periodic with respect to some lattice \(\Gamma \simeq {\mathbb Z}^d\). In \(d=3\) this equation includes, with \(\sigma =1\), \(\lambda(t) \equiv \pm 1\), the repulsive resp. attractive Gross-Pitaevskii equation, a celebrated equation connected with the Bose-Einstein condensation. The initial data \(\psi_I^{\varepsilon}\) is assumed to be of the form \[ \psi_I^{\varepsilon}(x) = a_I(x)\chi_n \biggl(\frac{x}{\varepsilon}, \nabla \phi_I(x)\biggr) e^{i\phi_I(x)/\varepsilon}+\varepsilon\varphi_I^{\varepsilon}(x). \] Here \(a_I \in {\mathcal S}({\mathbb R}^d; {\mathbb C}), \phi_I \in C^{\infty}({\mathbb R}^d; {\mathbb R})\) and \(\chi_n = \chi_n(y,k)\), \(k \in {\mathbb R}^d\), is the \textit{Bloch wave}, the eigenfunction associated to the \(n\)th eigenvalue \(E_n=E_n(k)\) of the Bloch eigenvalue problem: \([\frac12(-i\nabla_y+k)^2+V_{\Gamma}(y)-E_n(k)]\chi_n(y,k)=0\), and \(\varphi_I^{\varepsilon}\) in the remainder is a function of \(O(1)\) satisfying a certain condition. Then the authors apply the WKB method, which is effectively used with linear equations, to show that, for small \(\varepsilon\), the solution \(\psi \equiv \psi(t,x)\) is defined, up to time \(t\) before caustics appear, so as to have an approximation \(v_0^{\varepsilon} \equiv v_0^{\varepsilon}(t,x)\) with \(\psi -v_0^{\varepsilon} = O(\varepsilon)\). Although the wave function \(v_0^{\varepsilon}\) posesses the same phase \(\phi(t,x)/\varepsilon\) as in the linear case, coming from the Hamilton--Jacobi equation with the classical Hamiltonian \(h(k,x) \equiv E_n(k) +U(x)\): \(\partial_t \phi+ h_n(\nabla_x\phi,x)=0\), \(\phi| _{t=0}=\phi_I(x)\), it does an extra geometric phase \textit{modulated} in a nonlinear way.