Schatten class Fourier Integral Operators

Abstract

Fourier integral operators with sufficiently smooth phase act on the time-frequency content of functions. However time-frequency analysis has only recently been used to analyze these operators. In this paper, we show that if a Fourier integral operator has a smooth phase function and its symbol is well-localized in time and frequency, then the operator is Schatten \( p \)-class for \( p \in [1,2] \), with inclusion of the symbol in mixed modulation spaces serving as the appropriate measure of time-frequency localization. Our main results are sharp in the sense that larger mixed modulation spaces necessarily contain symbols of Fourier integral operators that are not Schatten \( p \)-class.