Continuous revival of the periodic Schrödinger equation with piecewise C2 potentials

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the revivals of the one-dimensional periodic Schrödinger equation with a piecewise C 2 potential function. As has been observed through numerical simulations of the equation with various initial data and potential functions, the solution, while remaining fractalized at irrational times, exhibits a form of revival at rational times. The goal is to prove that the solution at these rational times is given by a finite linear combination of translations and dilations of the initial datum, plus an additional continuous term, which we call “continuous revival”. In pursuit of this result, we present a review of relevant properties of the periodic Schrödinger equation as an eigenvalue problem, including asymptotic results on both the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions.