A NNALES DE L ’I. H. P., SECTION A
J EAN B ELLISSARD
M ICHEL V ITTOT
Heisenberg’s picture and non commutative geometry of the semi classical limit in quantum mechanics
Annales de l’I. H. P., section A, tome 52, n
o3 (1990), p. 175-235
<http://www.numdam.org/item?id=AIHPA_1990__52_3_175_0>
© Gauthier-Villars, 1990, tous droits réservés.
L’accès aux archives de la revue « Annales de l’I. H. P., section A » implique l’accord avec les conditions générales d’utilisation (http://www.numdam.
org/conditions). Toute utilisation commerciale ou impression systématique est constitutive d’une infraction pénale. Toute copie ou impression de ce fichier doit contenir la présente mention de copyright.
Article numérisé dans le cadre du programme Numérisation de documents anciens mathématiques
http://www.numdam.org/
175
Heisenberg’s picture and
noncommutative geometry
of the semi classical limit in quantum mechanics
Jean BELLISSARD (*) and Michel VITTOT Centre de Physique theorique (**), C.N.R.S. Luminy,
Case 907, 13288 Marseille Cedex 09, France
Vol. 52, n° 3, 1990, Physique théorique
ABSTRACT. - We propose a new framework based upon non commuta- tive geometry to control the semi classical limit in
phase
space. It leads inparticular
to uniform estimates of Nekhoroshev’s type, as Planck’s con-stant tends to zero, for the
perturbation expansion.
RESUME. 2014 Nous proposons un cadre nouveau fonde sur la
géométrie
non
commutative,
pour controler la limite semiclassique
dansl’espace
des
phases.
Cetteapproche
permet d’obtenir desestimations,
uniformes parrapport
a la constante dePlanck,
sur la serie deperturbation,
semblables a celles de Nekhoroshev enmecanique classique.
0. Introduction.
1. The Harmonic Oscillator: Action-Angle Variables.
2. The Quantal Phase Space.
3. The Semi Classical Observable Algebra.
4. Calculus I: Averaging and Integration.
5. Calculus II: Differential Structure.
(*) Universite de Provence, Marseille, (France).
(**) Laboratoire Propre, LP-7061, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
Annales de l’Institut Henri Poincaré - Physique théorique - 0246-0211 1
6. Holomorphic Functions on Quantal Phase Space.
7. A Non Commutative Cauchy-Kowaleskaya Theorem.
8. A Convergent Perturbation Theory for One Degree of Freedom.
9. Birkhofrs Expansion and Rayleigh-Schrodingcfs Perturbation Series.
10. A Nekhoroshev-type Estimate.
11. Another Birkhoff expansion.
0. INTRODUCTION
During
the last ten years many informations on the manifestations of classical deterministicregular
or chaotic motions in quantum mechanics have beengathered.
One of the most famous observations concerns the universal behaviour of the levelspacing
distribution of theeigenvalues
ofa quantum system which follows a Poisson law if the system is
classically integrable ([ 16], [ 17], [71 ], [73]),
and aWigner
distribution of the type GOEor GUE for
classically
chaotic ones([24], [25]).
These results have been testednumerically
on manyexamples ([19], [20], [21], [24], [26], [75]), they
have also been observed in several
experimental
results([23], [32])
andhave received some theoretical
justifications ([16], [19], [51]).
Another
important
result wasprovided by
theSelberg
traceformula, relating
the structure of the spectrum of theLaplacian
on a surface of constantnegative
curvature, to thedistribution
of theperiodic
orbits ofthe
corresponding geodesic
flow which is known to beergodic
andstrongly mixing ([65], [76]).
Generalizations to quantum mechanics have been pro-posed independently by
Gutzwiller([54], [55])
and Balian & Bloch([3], [4], [5], [6]).
Beside somemathematically rigorous
results on theasymptotics
of thedensity
of statesgeneralizing Weyl’s
formula([39], [40], [53])
itprovides
also a way to associate to eacheigenstate packages
of classical orbits located in theregion
where the quantum state lies([43], [57], [58], [59], [77]).
In the samespirit,
M. V.Berry proposed recently
a formula[19]
for theeigenvalues spacing
distribution from that kind of semiclassicalapproach
which seems togive
a moreprecise descrip-
tion than the
Wigner
laws inparticular
for nongeneric
systems for which the universal statistics do not hold.Quantum
systems withtime-dependent potentials periodic
in time have been alsosuccessfully investigated using comparison
with their classical counterpart. The first model was the so-called "kicked rotor"proposed by Taylor [78]
and Chirikov[38]
as aparadigm
for transition to chaos in classical hamiltonianmechanics,
and later onagain by
Casati[30]
forcomparison
between the classical and the quantum model. Animportant
contribution in that respect was the introduction of "Anderson’s localiza- tion" in that scheme
by
theMaryland
group([47], [48]).
At smallcoupling
Annales de l’Institut Henri Poincaré - Physique théorique
whenever the classical motion is
regular,
a KAM like theorem has beenproved
for asmoothly
kicked rotor[11] leading
to arigorous
version ofthe so-called EBK
quantization
condition. Atlarge coupling
where theclassical motion is chaotic
([52], [71]),
it leads to theChirikov-Shepelyansky
relation
([33], [35])
between the classical diffusion constant and the quan- tum localizationlength
of theeigenstates
of thequasi-energy
operator.More
recently
several theoretical and numerical works[50]
have beenperformed
on the kicked rotorproblem
togive
a more detailedanalysis
of the quantum behaviour in term of a semiclassical
approach leading
toa very
precise understanding
of the role of classical KAM tori or Cantori in the quantumtunneling
effect and the nature ofquantal eigenstates
ofthe
quasi-energy
operator.These ideas were very
successfully applied
toexplain
themultiphotonic
ionization of
hydrogen
atomsby microwaves,
anexperiment
due toJ.
Bayfield
and P. Koch[7]
whichstayed
apuzzling
result for years until it wassuggested
and then verified that the results were a manifestation of the transition to chaos in thecorresponding
classical systemgiving
rise toquantitative
successfulpredictions [8].
A quantum version of thatapproach using specifically
the localization schemeproved
veryrecently
to bequite
successfull in
predicting
the existence of aregime
where classical and quantum mechanicsdisagree
due to interference effects([9], [10], [34]).
Eventhough
most of these difficult results have contributedhighly
inunderstanding
moreconcretely
what has been fashionable to call"quan-
tum
chaos",
there is still a need for a mathematicalbackground permitting
to go
beyond
thestudy
ofspecial examples,
numerical simulations orexperiments.
In any case it is still to be understoodwhy
these semiclassical results are so accurate.In that respect the situation is in a much better
shape
for systems whichare
classically nearly integrable.
The Bohr-Sommerfeldquantization
rulesfor the orbits of the
hydrogen
atom weregeneralized by
Einstein-Brillouin- Kramers([30], [45], [61], [62])
toprovide
the semiclassicalapproximation
to
eigenvalues
whenever classical invariant tori occur in the system.In modern
language,
the EBKquantization
issuccessfully
usedthrough pseudodifferential
calculus([37], [53], [81]),
at least when one isdealing
with the
Schrodinger
operator. Forexample during
the last five yearsexact results on
tunneling
have been obtainedby
several groups([28], [29], [56]).
One of the mostremarquable
set of resultsalong
this lineconcerns the fractal
properties
of Hofstadter’s spectrum,describing
thequantum motion of a Bloch electron in a uniform
magnetic
field([14], [56], [73], [82], [83]).
However
physicists
and quantum chemists([43], [59], [64], [77])
havedevelopped
otherapproaches
in order to get accuratealgorithms
for thecomputation
ofeigenvalues
ofcomplicated
systems like atoms or mole- cules.Starting
with a classical hamiltonian as a smallperturbation
of anVol. 52, n° 3-1990.
integrable
oneexpressed
in term ofaction-angle variables, they
compute its Birkhoffexpansion
up to a finite orderby
various resummationmethod,
andsimply replace
each action variableby
aninteger multiple
of Planck’sconstant h. In this way one gets
surprinsingly
accurate results for theenergy spectrum even for the
groundstate
energy. On the otherhand,
thisapproach
has theadvantage
over thepseudodifferential
calculus ofbeing canonical,
for it usesaction-angle
variables which are(at
leastlocally
inphase space)
universal canonical variables. In this respect, such a canonicalapproach
were used in[15]
whendealing
with Bloch electrons in amagnetic
field
through
the use of a non commutativealgebra
of operatorsgeneraliz- ing
thealgebra
of classical observables on thecorresponding
classicalphase
space. It led to a more efficient method whendealing
withtunneling
in
phase
space than thepseudodifferential
calculus[56],
because it neveruses localization
properties
inposition
space.In all these
problems
interference effectsplay a
central role. For classi-cally integrable
systems, the WKBapproximation
consistsprecisely
incomputing
thephase
factor either for the wave function or for the Greenfunction,
and the EBK schemegive recipes
forgetting
the result. Forclassically
chaotic systems, trace formulae select classical closed orbitsprecisely
becausethey
arestationnary points
of thephase
factorsoccuring
in the
right-hand
side. In much the same way, Anderson localization for the kicked rotor model isprecisely
due to interference effectstrapping
thestate in a bounded
region
of the quantumphase
space.However,
there are still some difficulties infinding
asatisfactory
forma-lism, especially
in the chaoticregion
where no suchsimple
rule as theEBK one is known up to now to
give
a definite answer to thequestion
ofsemiclassical
quantization.
We believe that theHeisenberg point
of viewusing
a non commutativealgebra
of observables as the quantumanalog
of the set of functions over the classical
phase
space, can solve thatdifficulty.
The main reason is that it followsclosely
the canonical forma- lism in classical mechanics and therefore there is no rule to be found for thequantization.
The crucialpoint
then is to find a correct way ofexpressing
interference effects in such a non commutative framework.This is
precisely
what has been solved in several recent worksusing
noncommutative geometry
developped by
A. Connes[41].
The first
example
studied in this way concerned the gaplabelling
theorem for hamiltonian spectra
especially
whenever the spectrum is a Cantor set[ 11 ]. Gaps
occur in quantum mechanics whenever aBragg
condition isviolated, again
an interference effect. The gaplabelling
isprovided by
the value of the so-called"integrated density
of states" which is relatedthrough
Sturm’s theorem to the rotationangle
per unitlength
of the
phase
of the wave function solution ofSchrodingefs equation.
However, in the non commutative
approach,
this number can beinterpre-
ted as a
topological invariant,
an element ofK-theory,
similar to theAnnales de l’Institut Henri Poincaré - Physique théorique
Chern class of a fiber bundle. One can then use the
machinary
ofalgebraic topology
togive
exact rules incomputing
these numbers.The next
example
concerns amathematically complete
frameworkdescribing
theordinary Quantum
Hall Effect[ 13] .
Here interference effectsoccur in two ways:
firstly through
the gauge invarianceleading
to thequantization
of the Hallconductance,
and then in the Anderson localiza- tion due to thedisorder,
whichproduce
theplateaus
observed for the Hall conductance when onechange
thefilling
factor. Thisproblem
was solvedusing
themachinary
of non commutative geometry,permitting
toidentify
the Hall conductance with the Chern class
([2], [12], [63], [79])
of a noncommutative fiber
bundle,
whichhappens
to be aninteger.
The last
example
concerns the property of Hofstadter spectrum, andmore
generally
the behavior of the gap boundaries for the energyspectrum
of a 2D Bloch electron in a uniform
magnetic
field B as a function of B.It turns out that it is a semiclassical
problem
as firstpointed
outby Onsager [68]
when heexplained
in a verysimple
way the de Haas-vanAlphen
effect([ 1 ], [42]):
themagnetic
fieldplays
the role of Planck’sconstant! This remark was used first
by
M. Wilkinson[82]
togive
anapproximate
renormalization schemedescribing
Hofstadter’s spectrum for theHarper equation.
It has beenmathematically justified recently by
Helfer and
Sjostrand [56].
On the other hand Wilkinson also gave aformula
[84]
for the derivative of the gap boundaries with respect to themagnetic field,
which was rederived andphysically interpreted by
R. Rammal
[73 b].
As these authorspointed
out, this derivative involve a correction term due to the occurence of aBerry phase [18] again
aninterference effect which can be
interpreted
as atopological
invariant.Unfortunatly
the calculations of Rammal and Wilkinson used thespecific
form of
Harper’s equation
which can be seen as a 1 DSchrodinger equation
on a lattice. The
generalization
to the case of a 2D electron in amagnetic
field
requires
differenttechniques.
In[ 14]
one usesprecisely
non commuta-tive differential geometry to solve that
problem,
and the Rammal-Wilkin-son formula has been
given
in thisgeneral
case.This last result motivated us to
systematically develop
a non commuta-tive framework to
study
the semi-classical limit. It is fair to say that thekey
ideas are based upon the construction of the"tangent groupoid"
described
privately by
A. Connes several years ago in1983,
and aprivate
discussion with S. Graffi in 1983 who
explained
to one of us(J.B.)
howto relate small divisors in classical mechanics and quantum mechanics
through
a semi-classical limit.Our strategy is the
following: starting
from the intuitiongiven by
therepresentation
of quantum mechanics in term of annihilation and creation operators(giving
rise in the classical limit to actionangle variables),
wedefine a C*
algebras
of observables indexedby
the Planck constant~,
insuch a way that elements of that
algebra
have agood
limit as h - 0. We show that it is thenpossible
to see thatalgebra
as the non commutativeanalog
of the space of continuous functions on the classicalphase
space(here given
asR +
x Tn inaction-angle variables) vanishing
atinfinity. By analogy
we then extend to thatalgebra
the usualoperations
of thecanonical formalism
namely
the"averaging"
and the Poisson brackets{ , }.
In order to get technical results we then define afamily
of densesubalgebras being
the non commutativeanalog
of functions over theclassical
phase
space which can be extended to acomplex neighbourhood by holomorphy.
The main estimate of our paper concerns the boundedness of Liouville operators(namely
the operators~w : .f’ ~ ~w, .f’~)
on thesesubalgebras giving
rise to the existence and construction of a class of canonical transformationsuniformly
in h.Then we illustrate the power of this
approach by
acomparison
betweenperturbation expansions
in classical and in quantum mechanicsthrough
aLie formalism
using
Liouville operators. We get in this way formal power series related to Birkhoff’sexpansion
for h = 0 andcoinciding
with theRayleigh-Schrodinger
one for h # 0. Moreover estimates on each term ofthe
expansion
and on the remainders can be obtainedeasily uniformly
in hleading
to an extension of Nekhoroshev’s theorem for quantum mechanics.Actually denoting by
E theperturbation
parameter, it is shown that theerror term after
truncating
theexpansion
in anoptimal
way, is exponen-tially
small in E. This last result constitutesactually
the firstrigorous
resultin our
knowledge concerning
the use of Birkhoffexpansions
forcomputing
the
eigenvalue
spectrum of acomplicated
system[43].
In addition ourestimate
permits
to understandwhy eigenstates
obtained in this way areso accurate: for indeed if we allow ourself to
neglect
corrections of order~C2,
say for the energy spectrum, one gets accurate results for values of E such that O(exp
= O(~2) (where
N is an exponent which is of order of the number ofdegrees
offreedom)
avalue which can be
quite big
even for small values of h.We believe that our formalism is
actually
morepowerful.
First of allwe intend to show that such an
algebra
is"locally
universal"namely
it represents anyalgebra
of observable constructed in a similar waylocally
in the
"quantum phase space".
As a result we expect to be able tostudy
the quantum spectrum near an island of
stability
of thecorresponding
classical system. A consequence of such a
study
will beprobably
to proverigorously
that in this latter case Poisson’s distribution indeed occur for such kind of spectrum[16].
But wealso
believe that it isespecially
wellfitted for the
study
of theclassically
chaoticregime.
We intend to go intosuch directions in the near future.
Annales de l’Institut Henri Poincare - Physique théorique
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are
especially
indebted to a discussion with Alain Connes on the construction of the"tangent groupoid"
and with Sandro Graffi who introduced us to the semi-classical world.1. THE HARMONIC OSCILLATOR: ACTION-ANGLE VARIABLES Let us consider a harmonic oscillator with one
degree
of freedom. Onequantizes
itby
mean of the Fock space constructed from the vacuum state10>
and the annihilation and creationoperators a
and a*satifying
thefollowing
commutation relation:where h =
h/2 x
and h is the Planck constant. The Fock space isgenerated by
the basis of vectorsgiven by:
Our first result is
provided by
thefollowing
theorem:THEOREM 1.1. - Let P
(a, a*)
be apolynomial
in the operators a and a*. We set:(i) fP
can bedecomposed
into:where
fp (h, A, l)
is apolynomial
withrespect
to(h, A) vanishing identically for
Ibig enough,
and 03B8 is a rationalfunction independent of
Pdefined by:
(iii)
If h -0, n -
oo in such a way that nh - A one has:Let us now consider the
simplest
case where P(a, a*)
= a. Weget:
If one assumes
(1.3)
&(1.4)
one getsby taking
theadjoint
of(1.3) :
implying (1 .6 b) immediately.
Thisgives
inparticular
forP (a, a*) = a*
Given any
pair
P and P’ ofpolynomials
the matrixmultiplication gives:
Actually
one has:By ( 1. 8),
for I ~ 1 we have e(n,
=n (n -1 ) ... (n -1+ 1 ) ~~
which van-ishes if I ~ n + 1. Thus
leading
to formula(1.6 a).
Taking
the limit h - 0 with A fixed in(1.6)
andmultiplying
both sidesby
A - 1/2 which is the limit of8 (~, A, l) -1 ~2,
we see that if the formula(1.7)
is true forP
1 andP2
it is true also for theirproduct
and theiradjoint.
It is therefore sufficient to check it on thepolynomial P (a, a*)
= a.Thanks to
(1.9)
one obtains:proving (1.7)
at last. DAnnales de l’Institut Henri Poincaré - Physique théorique
2. THE
QUANTUM
PHASE SPACEWhat one learns from the
previous chapter
is that the classical limit isprovided by
the limit of thekernels fp (~,
0 with nh - A. Inthat limit this kernel converges to the Fourier transform of the
correspond- ing
classical observable obtainedby replacing
the annihilation operator aby
thefunction
and the creation operator a*by
the classicalfunction
of the action A andangle
e. In this section we willmake this remark
systematic by defining
atoplogy
on the set ofpairs (h, n~) describing properly
this semiclassical limit. We will also consider the situation for which one has Ndegrees
of freedom(N > 1 )
describedthrough action-angle
variables.In what
follows,
ifA = (A1,
..., E RN and A’ = ...,A~) E RN
we will set:
One denotes
by
the closure in RN + of the set ofpairs (h, n~)
where0
~ ~
1 and n E NN. As one can see fromFigure
1below,
is theunion of the lines
(here n
ENN)
If one endows with the
topology
inducedby
one sees that agenerating family
ofneighbourhoods
of the classical action(0, A)
isgiven by
the set ofpoints (n, nh)
such that for some E >0, In I
E andI A - nfi ] E.
This isexactly
thetopology
needed for the semiclassical limit. reO) will be called the "statespace".
Then is alocally
compact Hausdorff space.From last section one also sees that
angle
variables appearthrough
Fourier’s transform as dual variables "I" and
they give
rise for kernels toa
generalized
convolution. InHeisenberg’s language,
this convolution canbe seen in term of "transitions between states" and
~-/).
If weidentify
the states withpoints
in wejust
need togive
a proper definition of transitions between two suchpoints
for agiven
value of ~C.For this purpose we introduce the set r which is the closure in RN + 1 x ZN of the set of
triple
y =(n, A, l)
such that both(n, A)
and(n, A- /%) belong
to
r~.
We willinterpret
y as an arrowdescribing
a transition betweenan initial state
[its
"source"s (y)]
and a final state[its "range" . r (y)] exactly
as
spectroscopists
do(see fig. 2):
The set r inherits the
topology
of RN + 1 X ZN and becomes also alocally
compact Hausdorff space.Using
this transitionlanguage
one sees thateach arrow y admits a
unique
inversey -1
obtainedby reversing
the sourceand the range
namely:
At last two arrows yl and y2
may
becomposed provided
the source of Y 1 matches the range of y2 togive
rise to a new onenamely:
It is easy to check that Yl y2
belongs
indeed to r. We will denoteby
r(2)the set of
pairs (yl, y2)
ofcomposable
arrows; it is a closed subset of rxr.Annales de l’lnstitut Henri Poincaré - Physique théorique
Endowed with such a structure r is a
locally compact "groupoid" [74]
namely
we get:PROPOSITION 2.1. -
(i)
Themappings
rand sfrom
F into arecontinuous.
(ii)
Themapping
Y E T ~y-1
1 E r is continuous.(iii)
Themapping (yl, y2)
E -~ y 1 Y2 E r is continuous.Endowed with the source and range maps, the inverse and the
composition laws,
r becomes alocally
compactgroupoid.
DSince the
proof
isessentially elementary
we willskip
it. We refer thereader to
[74]
for the definition andproperties
ofgroupoids.
DDEFINITION 2.2. - The
groupoid
r will be called theaction-angle
quantumphase
space. D3. SEMICLASSICAL OBSERVABLE ALGEBRA
The quantum
phase
space we have defined in theprevious
section will represent a non commutativegeneralization
of the classicalphase
spaceR~
x TN if we use theaction-angle
variables(here
T =R/2 x
Z is thetorus).
A classical observable is
usually
defined as a continuous function on the classicalphase
space. In order to avoid inessentialdifficulties,
we willrestrict ourself to the space
rc 0
xTN)
of continuous functionsvanishing
at
infinity
endowed with the uniformtopology.
It turns out that the noncommutative
analog
of such a function space may be defined on a grou-poid,
the so-called"C*-Algebra"
of alocally
compactgroupoid.
In orderto make it clear we will describe its construction here. The reader who wants to know more, is referred to
[74].
We first consider the space
C, (F)
of continuous functions on r with compact support. In what follows ifx = (h, A) belongs
to r~°~ we willdenote
by r (x)
the set of arrows with range x. Then aproduct
and a "*"can be defined on
C~ (r) by:
Since these functions have compact support the sum in
(3.1 )
is well definedfor the fiber r
(x)
of any state isdiscrete,
andonly finitely
many terms in the sum will contribute. If we use theprevious
notations we see that(3 .1 )
can be written as:
namely
we recover the formulae of theorem 1.1.We want to introduce now a
topology
in order to controlproperly
theclassical limit. On the other hand
algebraic computations
will be neededleading
to control the convergence of seriesexpansions.
At the present stage of thetheory
we also want to introduce atopology
as natural aspossible,
thatis,
a constructionusing
no more than thealgebraic
structuredescribed above.
A standard way consists in
defining
a C*-norm for it satisfies the fundamental property:which
gives
the norm apurely algebraic origin.
The
explicit
construction of such norms goesthrough
the choice of oneor of a
family
ofrepresentations
in Hilbert spaces. In thegroupoid
case, there is a canonical choice of suchrepresentation
associated to fibers. Forx E
r~B
is the Hilbert spacel2 (r (x))
of square summable sequences indexedby
the fiber. We define therepresentation
nxacting
onby:
A C*-seminorm is then defined as follows:
One can
actually
check that this is a norm onCff (r)
for ifII f I =
0 thematrix elements
f
0y’)
vanish for anypair (y, y’)
in r(x)
for everyx E and therefore
f =
0.We define C*
(r)
as thecompletion
of thealgebra Cff (r)
under theprevious
norm.Clearly
any of therepresentations
~x extends to C*(r).
Thus the subset ~~ of C*
(r)
of elements such that a~~~,, A)( f )
= 0 for anypossible
A’s is a closed two-sided ideal. We will denoteby
~~ thequotient algebra
Ah = C* andby
03C1h the canonicalprojection
from C*(r)
onto We get the
following
result:THEOREM 3.1. -
(i) If
0, thealgebra
Ah isisomorphic
to thealgebra
~’
of
compact operators on the Hilbert space l2(ii) If
h =0,
thealgebra A0
isisomorphic
to thealgebra L0 (RN+
Xof
continuous
functions vanishing
atinfinity
on the classicalphase
space RN x TN .(iii) If f = f*
E C*(r)
andif h°
E[0, 1]
the spectrumof
Ph( f )
in iscontinuous around h =
~to
in thefollowing
sense: the gap boundariesof
thespectrum
of
p,~( f )
are continuousfunctions of
h atho.
Theeigenvalues of
Ph
( f )
at ~t ~ 0 are continuous in ~t andthey
accumulate at ~t = 0 on the ~.spectrum
of
Po( f )
which is an interval.Annales de l’Institut Henri Poincaré - Physique théorique
(iv)
Inparticular f f
E C*(r)
the normII
Ph( f ) II
is continuous with respectto ~t and
the field of C*-algebra
0 _ ~t _I}
is continuous[41].
DCOROLLARY 3.2. -
If f belongs
to C*(r)
thenf defines
a continuousfunction vanishing
atinfinity
onr,
and moreover:Proof of
theorem 3 . 3 . -(i)
Toreinterpret
the formula(3.4)
in ouroriginal notation,
let us consider first the case for whichx = (~C, n~)
with n i= 0. Thenr (x)
is the set of transition arrows withIE ZN
and n-l~NN. Themapping
y E r(x)
- n - l e NN is abijection
which allowsus to
identify
r(x)
with NN. Hence:giving
for therepresentation:
This formula shows that 1tx
depends only
on h and not upon thespecific
choice of x
along
the fiber. For short we will denote itby giving
operators on l2
(NN)
the matrix elements of whichbeing:
We therefore recover the formula
(1.3)
in theorem 1.1. On the otherhand,
since 0 all these
representations
areequivalent,
we seeimmediately
that the
algebra
dh isby
definitionisomorphic
to the norm closure of 7th(C~. (r)).
The first statement of theorem 3.1 will be a consequence of thefollowing
remark:LEMMA 3.3. -
If f
EC~,. (r)
andfi ~
0 the operator 7th( f ) acting
on l2(NN)
has a finite rank. DProof of
lemma 3.3. -Since f has
compact support, there is R > 0 such that ifI m~ ( ~ >_
R or if( m - m’ I 1 >_
R the matrixelement f (h, mh,
m -m’)
vanishes. Therefore the
corresponding
matrix hasonly
a finite number ofnon zero elements. 0
Proof of
theorem 3.1(continued). -
Since the norm closure of the space of finite rank operators is theC*-algebra
Jf of compact operators on l2 thealgebra (C~. (r))
is included in On the otherhand,
letB
(m, m’)
be a finite rank matrix. Let us built a continuous function with compact supportf
on r such that( f )
coincides with B. In order to do so, let p be a continuous functionon [0, 1]
with cp(h)
=1,
0 cp(s)
1and
vanishing
if~-~~/2(M+1)
where M is the max{~i,~,/B(~,~)~0}.
Thenf (~C’, mh’, 1 )
= cp(h’)
B(m, m -1 )
willdo it. Therefore any finite rank operator
belongs
to(C~. (r))
whichproves
(i).
(ii)
Let us now consider the case n = 0. Then the fiber of x =(0, A)
isgiven by
the set of transition arrowsy=(0, A, 1 )
with IE ZN. Thus theprojection
mapy=(0,
is abijection
which allows usto
identify r (x)
withZN.
Hence: .. ..giving
for therepresentation:
The Fourier transform
permits
toidentify
l2 with L2through
the formula:
Then A)
( f )
becomes the operator ofmultiplication by
8 -~f~~ (A, e)
on L2
(TN)
where:In
particular
we recover the situation of theorem 1.1(1 .7).
Moreover thenorm of ~~o, A)
( f )
isSince
f
has compact support, the functionf~~ (A, 8)
is continuous with respect to A and is atrigonometric polynomial
in theangle
variables.Now, by definition,
thealgebra j~o
is thecompletion
ofPo [C (r)]
under the semi-norm:
Therefore
d 0
is includedinto L0 (RN+
xTN). Conversely,
any function inCC 0 (R~
xTN)
can beuniformly approximated by
a continuous function with compact support with respect to A which is at the same time atrigonometric polynomial
in theangle.
Let therefore F be such afunction,
and let
F(A, 1 )
be its Fourier sequenceaccording
to formula(3.12).
Letalso
x be
the characteristic function ofR.
Then the functionf (h, A, /)=F(A, l).x
is continuous with compact support on r andby construction
coincides with F. ThereforeC~. (r)
is dense in~o
xTN)
in thenorm II . 110 proving (ii).
(iii)
&(iv)
In order to prove theremaining
part of thetheorem,
let us introduce thefollowing
operator onC~. (r):
Annales de l’Institut Henri Poincaré - Physique théorique
One can check
immediately
that it is a*-homomorphism.
Moreover if~V’ _ (~V’1,
...,% N)
is the operator ofmultiplication by n
on l2(NN),
110 isimplemented
in therepresentation 7~ (~ ~ 0) by
theunitary
operator0, showing that ~03C0h (119
whenever h~0. For h=0,
110 acts on the Fourier transform as translation of theangles.
Thusagain
thenorm is conserved. All
together,
110 is isometric and extends to the fullC*-algebra
as a*-homomorphism.
In much the same way it is easy to seethat rle 0 ~03B8’ = and therefore we get a group of
automorphisms. By
a3 E argument one can
easily
show that ~03B8 is normpointwise
continuouswith respect to e.
Let now
Fk
be a sequence of nonnegative trigonometric polynomials
on the torus TN with non
negative
Fourier coefficients such that(the Fejer
kernel will do it
[60]):
We define:
and thanks to the definition of
Fk, lim
_ ~.Moreover, if f belongs
k - oo
to
(h, A, 1)=/(~ A, j
ifFk
is the Fourier series ofFk. Therefore fk
has a compact support with respect to 1 whichdepends only
uponFk.
Let now gj be a continuous function with compact support on
RN+
suchthat
0 ~ gj(A) ~ 1,
andgj(A)=1
for_ j.
Weidentify gj
with thekernel o. Then
again
a 3 E argument shows thatif f belongs
toC* (r)
lim Alltogether, belongs
toC, (r)
j - w
and
approximate f
in the norm ’of C*(r).
We need now to prove the
following
lemma due to G. Elliott[46].
LEMMA 3.4
(G. Elliott). -
such that~(/)=0, then for
every E > 0 there is 6 > 0 such that
if I
_- Õthen ~ ~
p~( f ) I (
E. 0Proof of
lemma 3.4. -Using
theapproximation
forf
in the C*-algebra
and a 3 E argument, we can restrict ourself to the case for whichf belongs
toC~(r).
Indeedby (3.16)
p( fk) = 0,
and therefore we get= P~
(g)
P~.(.fk)
= O. Nowif f belongs
toC~. (r)
the norm of p.is
bounded
from aboveby
sup~l A, lJ I
which is a continuousA
function of h’
vanishing
whenever h’ = hproving
the result. 0Proof of
theorem 3.1(end). -
The end of theproof
is now standard:let f= f* belong
to C*(r)
and let J be a closed interval contained in theresolvent set of
Ph(f).
We denoteby
G a continuous function on R such that0 ~ G _ 1, vanishing
on the spectrum ofPh(f)
andtaking
on thevalue 1 on J. Thus
p~(G(/))=0
andapplying
the lemma 3.3 there is Ö > 0 such that ö the norm of(G ( f ))
is less than1 /2.
For suchh’,
J cannot cut the spectrum of Ph’(G (/)).
Let now 0 be an open interval
cutting
the spectrum ofPh (f). Let hk
be a sequence
converging
to h and such that 0 does not cut the spectrum of( f ).
Let us assume first that ~ ~ 0. We know that( f )
acts on __the same Hilbert space as
long
as h’ is not zero.Moreover,
from(3.8)
wesee that
( f )
isstrongly
continuous in h’whenever fhas
compact support, andby
a 3 E argument this is truefor f in
theC*-algebra.
Therefore since the spectrum cannot increaseby
strong limit the spectrum of 7~( f)
whichcoincides with the spectrum of
Ph (f)
cannot cut0,
a contradiction. Ifnow h = 0,
let us represent( f )
from h’ > 0 in the space l2(ZN) by
meanof:
This is a
representation unitarily equivalent
to 7r~.Choosing
a sequence nk in NNconverging
to 0o such that converges toA,
anddenoting by
7~ thecorresponding representation,
we see that convergesstrongly
to( f).
Since A can be chosenarbitrarily
the same conclusionapplies.
Therefore in any case, for h’ closeenough
to h the spectrum of p~.(, f’)
must cut O.From these two
properties,
we concludeeasily
that the gap boundariesare continuous in h. In
particular,
since for h~ 0 Ph( f )
is a compact selfadjoint
operator its spectrum is discrete and eacheigenvalue
variescontinuously
with respect to h. Ash = 0, p° (, f ’)
can be identified with the functionfez (A, 8)
and its spectrum isnothing
but theimage of namely
a closed interval. Therefore the
eigenvalues
of p~( f )
accumulate on that interval as h - 0.If
now f is arbitrary,
wehave II
Ph= II ( ff’*) 111/2
and therefore thecontinuity
of the norm follows from thecontinuity
of the upperboundary
of the spectrum of Ph
( ff *).
This isjust
what we need for the definition of a continuous field ofC*-algebra (see [44]).
DProof of
theCorollary
3.2. - Theproposition
follows from the estimate. Butby (3.4)
if x E and y,y’
E r(x)
we getI f (y’ 1 ° y) ~ _ ~ leading
to the first formula and also to the other one if wereplace f by ff*.
DAnnales de l’lnstitut Henri Poincaré - Physique théorique