On the structure of the Schr\"odinger propagator

Abstract

We discuss the form of the propagator $U(t)$ for the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation on an asyptotically Euclidean, or, more generally, asymptotically conic, manifold with no trapped geodesics. In the asymptotically Euclidean case, if $\chi \in \mathcal{C}_0^\infty$, and with $\mathcal{F}$ denoting Fourier transform, $\mathcal{F}\circ e^{-ir^2/2t} U(t) \chi$ is a Fourier integral operator for $t\neq 0.$ The canonical relation of this operator is a ``sojourn relation'' associated to the long-time geodesic flow. This description of the propagator follows from its more precise characterization as a ``scattering fibered Legendrian,'' given by the authors in a previous paper and sketched here. A corollary is a propagation of singularities theorem that permits a complete description of the wavefront set of a solution to the Schr\"odinger equation, restricted to any fixed nonzero time, in terms of the oscillatory behavior of its initial data. We discuss two examples which illustrate some extremes of this propagation behavior.