WKB for semiclassical operators: How to fly over caustics (and more)

Abstract

The method initiated by Wentzel, Kramers, and Brillouin to find approximate solutions to the Schr\"odinger equation lies at the origin of the spectacular development of microlocal and semiclassical analysis. When used naively, the approach appears to break down at caustics, but Maslov showed how a simple generalization could overcome this difficulty. In this paper, after a partial historical review, we take advantage of more recent advances in microlocal analysis to present a unified treatment of this generalized Maslov-WKB method, using a microlocal sheaf-theoretic approach. This framework provides a rigorous proof of the Bohr Sommerfeld Einstein Brillouin Keller quantization conditions for the eigenvalues of general semiclassical operators (pseudodifferential and Berezin Toeplitz) in one degree of freedom. We also review some applications and extensions.