On the Herman-Kluk Semiclassical Approximation

TL;DR

This paper revisits the Herman-Kluk semiclassical approximation for quantum propagators, emphasizing phase function flexibility and providing global $L^2$ estimates for small ${h}$ and large times, extending its validity.

Contribution

It introduces a flexible quadratic complex phase function for the semiclassical propagator and establishes global $L^2$ estimates with a time validity depending on ${h}$ and a stability parameter.

Findings

The semiclassical propagator is supported near the classical flow graph.

The expansion remains valid for times up to a logarithmic scale in ${h}$.

The paper provides new global $L^2$ estimates for the propagator.

Abstract

For a subquadratic symbol $H$ on $\R^d\times\R^d = T^*(\R^d)$, the quantum propagator of the time dependent Schr\"odinger equation $i\hbar\frac{\partial\psi}{\partial t} = \hat H\psi$ is a Semiclassical Fourier-Integral Operator when $\hat H=H(x,\hbar D_x)$ ($\hbar$-Weyl quantization of $H$). Its Schwartz kernel is describe by a quadratic phase and an amplitude. At every time $t$, when $\hbar$ is small, it is "essentially supported" in a neighborhood of the graph of the classical flow generated by $H$, with a full uniform asymptotic expansion in $\hbar$ for the amplitude. In this paper our goal is to revisit this well known and fondamental result with emphasis on the flexibility for the choice of a quadratic complex phase function and on global $L^2$ estimates when $\hbar$ is small and time $t$ is large. One of the simplest choice of the phase is known in chemical physics as Herman-Kluk formula. Moreover we prove that the semiclassical expansion for the propagator is valid for $| t| << \frac{1}{4\delta}|\log\hbar|$ where $\delta>0$ is a stability parameter for the classical system.