Sharp estimates for eigenvalues of localization operators with applications to area laws

Abstract

We study the eigenvalues of the localization operator $S_{A, B} = P_A\mathcal{F}^{-1}P_B\mathcal{F} P_A$, where $\mathcal{F}$ is the Fourier transform and $A = cA_0, B = B_0$ for some fixed sets $A_0, B_0\subset \mathbb{R}^d$ and a large parameter $c > 0$. For the counting function of the eigenvalues $|\{n: \varepsilon < \lambda_n(A,B)\le 1-\varepsilon\}|$ we obtain a sharp uniform upper bound if one of the sets is a finite disjoint union of parallelepipeds and a bound which is only a single logarithm off the conjectural optimal bound in the general case. These bounds are applied to the estimation of traces ${\rm{Tr}}\, f(S_{A,B})$ for functions $f$ with a very low regularity, in particular establishing an enhanced area law in the former case.