An analysis of the Wigner-Poisson problem with inflow boundary conditions (Q703411)

A study of the Wigner-Poisson problem in a bounded spatial domain with non-homogeneous and time-dependent ``inflow'' boundary conditions is presented. The system of nonlinearly coupled equations solved is a mathematical model for quantum transport of charges in a semiconductor with external contacts. Well-posedness of the linearized \(n\)-dimensional problem as well as existence and uniqueness of a global-in-time, regular solution of the one-dimensional nonlinear problem are proven. As the density of an open system is not well-defined for any Wigner function belonging to the Hilbert space \(L^2(\Omega_x\times R^n_v; C)\) (\(\Omega_x\) is a convex and bounded subset of \(R^n_v\)), first a new Hilbert space \(X_k \subset L^2(\Omega_x\times R^n_v; C)\) is introduced such that, for a suitable choice of \(k\) depending on the dimension \(n\), the existence of the density is granted for any Wigner function of \(X_k\). Besides it is proven that the pseudo-differential operator of the mean field \(V\) and the external potential \(U\) is well defined in the new Hilbert space. Then, the self-consistent potential \(V\) is dropped and the Cauchy problem for the \(n\)-dimensional Wigner equation with time-dependent external potential \(U(t)\) is studied alone. Existence and uniqueness of the classical solution of the problem is proven. Such a problem is non-autonomous ``affine'' (non-homogeneous boundary conditions). Further, in the one-dimensional case, a linear map \(P\) is found which associates to each Wigner state the extension with value zero outside \(\Omega_x\) of the solution \(V\) of the Poisson problem (yielding the self-consistent potential term; 1d, nonlinear, non-autonomous Cauchy problem). Finally, the preceding results are used, together with a suitable a priori estimate, to prove the existence, uniqueness and regularity of a global-in-time, classical solution the Wigner-Poisson problem.