next up previous
Next: About this document ...

Geometry of highly excited quantum states


Steven Zelditch, The Johns Hopkins University


By highly excited quantum states, I mean the eigenfunctions of a Laplacian or Schrodinger operator correspoinding to a large eigenvalue $ E^2$. It is when a physical system is in an excited state that the (semi-) classical approximation is valid. My main purpose is to survey a series of new results (joint work with B. Shiffman, C. Sogge and J.Toth) about the geometry of such states: how their size (sup-norms and $L^p$-norms) reflects the underlying geometry, and how the zeros and critical points are distributed in typical cases. I will also present some slides (made by physicist) of actual excited states in various systems of physical and mathematical interest.






2001-03-19