Quantum transition amplitudes for ergodic and for completely integrable systems

Ergodic theory (37A99) Dynamical systems of geometric origin and hyperbolicity (geodesic and horocycle flows, etc.) (37D40) Completely integrable finite-dimensional Hamiltonian systems, integration methods, integrability tests (37J35) Completely integrable infinite-dimensional Hamiltonian and Lagrangian systems, integration methods, integrability tests, integrable hierarchies (KdV, KP, Toda, etc.) (37K10) Geodesic flows in symplectic geometry and contact geometry (53D25) Spectral problems; spectral geometry; scattering theory on manifolds (58J50)

Review text

It is well known that the asymptotic distribution of eigenvalues, \(\lambda_ j\), of the Laplacian on a compact Riemannian manifold, M, reflects geometrical properties of the manifold. In particular the uniformity of the distribution depends upon the extent to which the geodesics on M fail to be closed. The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the asymptotic (in j) behaviour of the corresponding eigenfunctions \(\phi_ j\) and the dynamics of the geodesic flows and particularly to discuss the cases where the flow is either mixing or completely integrable. To quantify the asymptotics of the \(\phi_ j\) one looks at \((A\phi_ j,\phi_ i)\) where A is a zeroth order pseudodifferential operator on \(L^ 2(M)\). (These are the ``quantum transitions amplitudes of the title.) This is a linear functional of the symbol, \(\sigma_ A\in C^{\infty}(T^*M)\), and one wishes to know the weak limits of subsequences of \(\{d\Phi_{i,j}\}\) where \(d\Phi_{i,j}\in {\mathcal D}'(T^*M)\) is defined by \(<\sigma_ A,d\Phi_{i,j}>=(A\phi_ i,\phi_ j)\). A result of \textit{A. I. Shnirel'man} [Usp. Mat. Nauk 29, No.6(180), 181-182 (1974; Zbl 0324.58020)] states that \(\{d\Phi_{i,i}\}\) \((i=j)\) tends to Liouville measure if the geodesic flow is ergodic. The author considers off- diagonal elements (i\(\neq j)\). Thus if the flow is ergodic and a positive proportion of eigenvalues are multiple then, up to a sparse subsequence, \(d\Phi_{i_ r,j_ r}\to 0\) when \(i_ r\neq j_ r\) but \(\lambda_{i_ r}=\lambda_{j_ r}\). This also holds when the flow is mixing. For completely integrable flows \(T^*M\) is foliated by invariant tori and certain subsequences of \(\{d\Phi_{i,j}\}\) tend to \(\delta\)- function on these tori. More precisely the asymptotic limit is given by an orbital Fourier coefficient on the torus.

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