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On the Mean Field and Classical Limits of Quantum Mechanics

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

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Authors

Golse, F 
Mouhot, C 
Paul, T 

Abstract

The main result in this paper is a new inequality bearing on solutions of the N-body linear Schr"{o}dinger equation and of the mean field Hartree equation. This inequality implies that the mean field limit of the quantum mechanics of N identical particles is uniform in the classical limit and provides a quantitative estimate of the quality of the approximation. This result applies to the case of C1,1 interaction potentials. The quantity measuring the approximation of the N-body quantum dynamics by its mean field limit is analogous to the Monge-Kantorovich (or Wasserstein) distance with exponent 2. The inequality satisfied by this quantity is reminiscent of the work of Dobrushin on the mean field limit in classical mechanics [Func. Anal. Appl. 13 (1979), 115-123]. Our approach of this problem is based on a direct analysis of the N-particle Liouville equation, and avoids using techniques based on the BBGKY hierarchy or on second quantization.

Description

Keywords

math.AP, math.AP, math-ph, math.MP, 82C10, 35Q55, 82C05, 35Q83

Journal Title

Communications in Mathematical Physics

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0010-3616
1432-0916

Volume Title

343

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
European Research Council (279600)