Quantum unique ergodicity for parabolic maps

Jens Marklof*, Zeév Rudnick

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

We study the ergodic properties of quantized ergodic maps of the torus. It is known that these satisfy quantum ergodicity: For almost all eigenstates, the expectation values of quantum observables converge to the classical phase-space average with respect to Liouville measure of the corresponding classical observable. The possible existence of any exceptional subsequences of eigenstates is an important issue, which until now was unresolved in any example. The absence of exceptional subsequences is referred to as quantum unique ergodicity (QUE). We present the first examples of maps which satisfy QUE: Irrational skew translations of the two-torus, the parabolic analogues of Arnold's cat maps. These maps are classically uniquely ergodic and not mixing. A crucial step is to find a quantization recipe which respects the quantum-classical correspondence principle. In addition to proving QUE for these maps, we also give results on the rate of convergence to the phase-space average. We give upper bounds which we show are optimal. We construct special examples of these maps for which the rate of convergence is arbitrarily slow.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1554-1578
Number of pages25
JournalGeometric and Functional Analysis
Volume10
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - 2000

Funding

FundersFunder number
European Post-Doctoral Institute for the Mathematical Sciences
Hermann Minkowski Center for Geometry
European Commission
Israel Science Foundation
Department of Transport and Main Roads, Queensland Government

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