On the pointwise convergence of the integral kernels in the Feynman-Trotter formula

Pseudodifferential operators as generalizations of partial differential operators (35S05) Function spaces arising in harmonic analysis (42B35) Linear operator approximation theory (47A58) Schrödinger and Feynman-Kac semigroups (47D08) Path integrals in quantum mechanics (81S40)

Abstract: We study path integrals in the Trotter-type form for the Schr"odinger equation, where the Hamiltonian is the Weyl quantization of a real-valued quadratic form perturbed by a potential

V

in a class encompassing that - considered by Albeverio and It^o in celebrated papers - of Fourier transforms of complex measures. Essentially,

V

is bounded and has the regularity of a function whose Fourier transform is in

L^{1}

. Whereas the strong convergence in

L^{2}

in the Trotter formula, as well as several related issues at the operator norm level are well understood, the original Feynman's idea concerned the subtler and widely open problem of the pointwise convergence of the corresponding probability amplitudes, that are the integral kernels of the approximation operators. We prove that, for the above class of potentials, such a convergence at the level of the integral kernels in fact occurs, uniformly on compact subsets and for every fixed time, except for certain exceptional time values for which the kernels are in general just distributions. Actually, theorems are stated for potentials in several function spaces arising in Harmonic Analysis, with corresponding convergence results. Proofs rely on Banach algebras techniques for pseudo-differential operators acting on such function spaces.

Review text

There are several ways to give a mathematically rigorous meaning to Feynman path integral. One possible approach is to define the Feynman path integral by the time slicing approximation. A detailed study of the convergence in the norm operator topology in the space of bounded operators on \(L^2\) was carried on by \textit{D. Fujiwara} [Rigorous time slicing approach to Feynman path integrals. Tokyo: Springer (2017; Zbl 1388.81002)]. The paper under review is devoted to the investigation of the convergence at the level of integral kernels for the time-slicing approximation of path integrals. The authors consider the Schrödinger equation \[i\partial_t \psi = (H_0+V(x))\psi, \] where \(H_0 = a_w\) is the Weyl quantization of a real quadratic form \(a(x,\xi)\) on \({\mathbb R}^{2d}\) and \(V \in L^\infty({\mathbb R}^d)\) is complex-valued potential. It is assumed that \( V \) belongs to one of the function spaces introduced by the authors, which are defined in terms of decay of the Fourier transform. For the above class of potentials, convergence of the integral kernels is proved uniformly on compact subsets of these functional spaces and for every fixed time, except for certain exceptional time values. Proofs rely on Banach algebras techniques for pseudo-differential operators.

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