2025/09/05 by Jared Wunsch, Wunsch, Jared, Mengxuan Yang +3
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Analysis of PDEs (math.AP) #FOS: Mathematics #FOS: Physical sciences #Mathematical Physics (math-ph) #Quantum Mechanics and Non-Hermitian Physics #Quantum chaos and dynamical systems #Spectral Theory (math.SP) #Spectral Theory in Mathematical Physics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2509.05220
openalex publication_date 2025/09/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The Gutzwiller trace formula relates the asymptotic spacing of quantum-mechanical energy levels in the semiclassical limit to the dynamics of periodic classical particle trajectories. We generalize this result to the case of non-smooth potentials, for which there is partial reflection of energy from derivative discontinuities of the potential. It is the periodic trajectories of an associated branching dynamics that contribute to the trace asymptotics in this more general setting; we obtain a precise description of their contribution.