Gaussian decay for the harmonic oscillator

Abstract

We consider the Schrödinger equation associated with the harmonic oscillator and show that if the initial data and its Fourier transform are dominated by Gaussian functions of widths $a>0$ and $b>0$, respectively, satisfying $ab<1$, then the evolved solution and its Fourier transform are dominated by a Gaussian of width $\frac{1}{2}\left(\frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}-\sqrt{{\left(\frac{1}{a}+\frac{1}{b}\right)}^2-4}\right),$ for all times except for a discrete set, and for all times in one dimension. In the one-dimensional case, we prove that these estimates are sharp. Moreover, for a more restrictive class of initial data, we establish sharper time-dependent Gaussian bounds.

15 pages