English

Characterizing the support of semiclassical measures for higher-dimensional cat maps

Analysis of PDEs 2025-12-12 v2 Mathematical Physics math.MP Number Theory Spectral Theory

Abstract

Quantum cat maps are toy models in quantum chaos associated to hyperbolic symplectic matrices ASp(2n,Z)A\in \operatorname{Sp}(2n,\mathbb{Z}). The macroscopic limits of sequences of eigenfunctions of a quantum cat map are characterized by semiclassical measures on the torus R2n/Z2n\mathbb{R}^{2n}/\mathbb{Z}^{2n}. We show that if the characteristic polynomial of every power AkA^k is irreducible over the rationals, then every semiclassical measure has full support. The proof uses an earlier strategy of Dyatlov-J\'ez\'equel [arXiv:2108.10463] and the higher-dimensional fractal uncertainty principle of Cohen [arXiv:2305.05022]. Our irreducibility condition is generically true, in fact we show that asymptotically for 100%100\% of matrices AA, the Galois group of the characteristic polynomial of AA is S2SnS_2 \wr S_n. When the irreducibility condition does not hold, we show that a semiclassical measure cannot be supported on a finite union of parallel non-coisotropic subtori. On the other hand, we give examples of semiclassical measures supported on the union of two transversal symplectic subtori for n=2n=2, inspired by the work of Faure-Nonnenmacher-De Bi\`evre [arXiv:nlin/0207060] in the case n=1n=1. This is complementary to the examples by Kelmer [arXiv:math-ph/0510079] of semiclassical measures supported on a single coisotropic subtorus.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2410.13449,
  title  = {Characterizing the support of semiclassical measures for higher-dimensional cat maps},
  author = {Elena Kim and Theresa C. Anderson and Robert J. Lemke Oliver},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2410.13449},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

66 pages, 3 figures, with an appendix by Theresa C. Anderson and Robert J. Lemke Oliver. Revised according to the referee's comments. To appear in Analysis and PDE