Quantum Ergodicity and the Analysis of Semiclassical Pseudodifferential Operators

This thesis is concerned with developing the tools of differential geometry and semiclassical analysis needed to understand the the quantum ergodicity theorem of Schnirelman (1974), Zelditch (1987), and de Verdière (1985) and the quantum unique ergodicity conjecture of Rudnick and Sarnak (1994). The former states that, on any Riemannian manifold with negative curvature or ergodic geodesic flow, the eigenfunctions of the Laplace-Beltrami operator equidistribute in phase space with density 1. Under the same assumptions, the latter states that the eigenfunctions induce a sequence of Wigner probability measures on fibers of the Hamiltonian in phase space, and these measures converge in the weak-∗ topology to the uniform Liouville measure. If true, the conjecture implies that such eigenfunctions equidistribute in the high-eigenvalue limit with no exceptional “scarring” patterns. This physically means that the finest details of chaotic Hamiltonian systems can never reflect their quantum-mechanical behaviors, even in the semiclassical limit. The main objective of this thesis is to contextualize the question of quantum ergodicity and quantum unique ergodicity in an analytic and geometric framework. In addition to presenting and summarizing numerous important proofs, such as de Verdière’s proof of the quantum ergodicity theorem and Barnett’s disproof of quantum unique ergodicity on the Bunimovich stadium, we perform numerical simulations of certain billiard flows and introduce several key themes in the modern study of quantum chaos.