A Gutzwiller trace formula for large hermitian matrices

Abstract

We develop a semiclassical approximation for the dynamics of quantum systems in finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces whose classical counterparts are defined on a toroidal phase space. In contrast to previous models of quantum maps, the time evolution is in continuous time and, hence, is generated by a Schr\"odinger equation. In the framework of Weyl quantisation, we construct discrete, semiclassical Fourier integral operators approximating the unitary time evolution and use these to prove a Gutzwiller trace formula. We briefly discuss a semiclassical quantisation condition for eigenvalues as well as some simple examples.