Asymptotic expansion of double Laplace-type integrals: the case of non-stationary minimum points (Q2814397)

The authors consider the double Laplace type integral NEWLINE\[NEWLINE I(\lambda):=\int_Dg(x,y)e^{-\lambda f(x,y)}dxdy, NEWLINE\]NEWLINE where \(D\) is a bounded domain in \(R^2\), \(f\) and \(g\) are \(C^\infty\) real valued functions in a neighborhood of the closure \(\bar{D}\) of \(D\) and \(\lambda\) is a large positive parameter. The purpose of the paper is to find the asymptotic expansion of \(I(\lambda)\) when the phase function \(f(x,y)\) achieves its local minimum at a non-stationary point \((x_0,y_0)\). This problem has previously been studied by other authors under more restrictive conditions. The authors show in this paper that the asymptotic expansion of \(I(\lambda)\) is governed by the order of contact between the boundary curve \(\partial D\) of the domain of integration and the level curve of the phase function \(f(x,y)\) through the minimum point \((x_0,y_0)\). The authors consider two different situations: (i) the minimum point is located at a smooth portion of \(\partial D\) and (ii) a portion of \(\partial D\) consists of two smooth curves \(\Gamma_1\) and \(\Gamma_2\) that meet at the minimum point. In the first case, \(I(\lambda)\sim \lambda^{-1-1/p}\), where \(p\) is the order of contact between \(\partial D\) and the level curve of \(f(x,y)\) through \((x_0,y_0)\). In the second case, \(I(\lambda)\sim \lambda^{-1-1/p^*}\), where \(p^*:=\max\{ p_1,p_2\}\); \(p_1\) and \(p_2\) are the order of contact between the level curve of \(f(x,y)\) through \((x_0,y_0)\) and \(\Gamma_1\) and \(\Gamma_2\) respectively. In both cases, the leading order term is computed explicitly in terms of the data of the problem.