Feynman formulas for the diffusion of particles with position-dependent mass

Abstract

In the present paper, Feynman formulas are obtained for Schrodinger semigroups generated by self-adjoint operators which are perturbations of self-adjoint extensions of the second-order Hamiltonian operator −Δg,0/2+V (throughout the paper, the coefficient −1/2 at Δg,0 is omitted to simplify the formulas) which describe the diffusion of a quasiparticle with position-dependent mass varying jump-like on a line. Every extension of this kind is defined by some invertible operator and is characterized by matching conditions at a jump point. The Schrodinger semigroups generated by self-adjoint Laplace operators and defined by the corresponding boundary conditions define solutions of initial-boundary value problems. In turn, the term “Feynman formulas” is applied (in the present case) to an explicit representation of the Schrodinger semigroup \( e^{t\hat H^T } \) in the form of a limit of integrals of finite multiplicity over Cartesian powers of some configuration space. In essence, the Feynman-Kac formula is a “probabilistic interpretation” of the Feynman formulas. Namely, the multiple integrals in the Feynman formulas approximate integrals against some measures on the space of trajectories (functions defined on an interval of the real line and ranging in the configuration space). Thus, the Feynman formulas enable one to evaluate integrals over spaces of trajectories. A crucial role in the proof of the Feynman formulas is played by the Chernoff theorem, which is a generalization of the famous Trotter formula. The result proved in the present paper is a demonstration of a part of the results recently announced by O. G. Smolyanov and H. von Weizacker (“Feynman Formulas Generated by Self-Adjoint Extensions of the Laplacian,” Dokl. Ross. Akad. Nauk 426 (2), 162–165 (2009) [Doklady Mathematics, 2009 79 (3), 335–338 (2009)]). The formulations of the results in question are inessentially modified here.