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Mathieu Lewin

Publications and source records attributed to Mathieu Lewin.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory with Coulomb Interactions

We provide the first fully rigorous justification of time-dependent density functional theory in the continuum: Given a time-dependent density, we prove that there exists an external potential, unique up to a time-dependent constant, such that the corresponding Schr\"odinger equation reproduces the given density. This potential can be obtained with an iteration scheme. Our argument covers Coulomb interactions and does not need any Taylor expansion in time. It instead requires analyticity in space for the density and potential, which is compatible with extended nuclei.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2026

The inverse problem of time-dependent density functional theory on the torus

We prove that, for any given sufficiently regular one-particle density, there exists a unique external potential for which the solution to the many-body Schr\"odinger equation has this prescribed density. This implies in particular that one can exactly reproduce the time-dependent density of an interacting system using non-interacting electrons, which is at the heart of time-dependent density functional theory. Our result covers the Coulomb interaction and densities arising from extended nuclei.

math-ph↗
arXiv2026

Geometric theory of constrained Schr\"odinger dynamics with application to time-dependent density-functional theory on a finite lattice

Time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) is a central tool for studying the dynamical electronic structure of molecules and solids, yet aspects of its mathematical foundations remain insufficiently understood. In this work, we revisit the foundations of TDDFT within a finite-dimensional setting by developing a general geometric framework for Schr\"odinger dynamics subject to prescribed expectation values of selected observables. We show that multiple natural definitions of such constrained dynamics arise from the underlying geometry of the state manifold. The conventional TDDFT formulation emerges from demanding stationarity of the action functional, while an alternative, purely geometric construction leads to a distinct form of constrained Schr\"odinger evolution that has not been previously explored. This alternative dynamics may provide a more mathematically robust route to TDDFT and may suggest new strategies for constructing nonadiabatic approximations. Applying the theory to interacting fermions on finite lattices, we derive novel Kohn--Sham schemes in which the density constraint is enforced via an imaginary potential or, equivalently, a nonlocal Hermitian operator. Numerical illustrations for the Hubbard dimer demonstrate the behavior of these new approaches.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2026

Geometric Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory

We provide a new formulation of Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (TDDFT) based on the geometric structure of the set of states constrained to have a fixed density. Orbital-free TDDFT is formulated using a hydrodynamics equation involving a new density-to-current functional map. In the corresponding Kohn--Sham equation, the density is reproduced using a non-local operator. Finally, we present numerical simulations for one-dimensional soft-Coulomb systems.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗
arXiv2025

Liquid Drop Model for Nuclear Matter in the Low Density Limit

We consider the liquid drop model with a positive background density in the thermodynamic limit. We prove a two-term asymptotics for the ground state energy per unit volume in the dilute limit. Our proof justifies the expectation that optimal configurations consist of droplets of unit size that arrange themselves according to minimizers for the Jellium problem for point particles. In particular, we provide the first rigorous derivation of what is known as the gnocchi phase in astrophysics.

math-ph↗
arXiv2024

Stability estimate for the Lane-Emden inequality

The Lane-Emden inequality controls $\iint_{\mathbb{R}^{2d}}\rho(x)\rho(y)|x-y|^{-\lambda}\,dx\,dy$ in terms of the $L^1$ and $L^p$ norms of $\rho$. We provide a remainder estimate for this inequality in terms of a suitable distance of $\rho$ to the manifold of optimizers.

math.AP↗
arXiv2024

Ground state energy is not always convex in the number of electrons

We provide the first counterexample showing that the ground state energy of electrons in an external Coulomb potential is not always a convex function of the number of electrons. This convexity has been conjectured for decades and plays an important role in quantum chemistry. Our counterexample involves six nuclei with small fractional charges placed far apart. The ground state energy of 3 electrons is shown to be higher than the average of the energies for 2 and 4 electrons. We also show that the nuclei can bind 2 or 4 electrons, but not 3. This article raises the question of whether the energy convexity really holds for all possible molecules (with nuclei of integer charge).

math-ph↗
arXiv2023

Classical Density Functional Theory: The Local Density Approximation

We prove that the lowest free energy of a classical interacting system at temperature $T$ with a prescribed density profile $\rho(x)$ can be approximated by the local free energy $\int f_T(\rho(x))dx$, provided that $\rho$ varies slowly over sufficiently large length scales. A quantitative error on the difference is provided in terms of the gradient of the density. Here $f_T$ is the free energy per unit volume of an infinite homogeneous gas of the corresponding uniform density. The proof uses quantitative Ruelle bounds (estimates on the local number of particles in a large system), which are derived in an appendix.

math-ph↗
arXiv2023

Positive-density ground states of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation

We consider the nonlinear Gross-Pitaevskii equation at positive density, that is, for a bounded solution not tending to 0 at infinity. We focus on infinite ground states, which are by definition minimizers of the energy under local perturbations. When the Fourier transform of the interaction potential takes negative values we prove the existence of a phase transition at high density, where the constant solution ceases to be a ground state. The analysis requires mixing techniques from elliptic PDE theory and statistical mechanics, in order to deal with a large class of interaction potentials.

math-ph↗
arXiv2022

Which nuclear shape generates the strongest attraction on a relativistic electron? An open problem in relativistic quantum mechanics

In this article we formulate several conjectures concerning the lowest eigenvalue of a Dirac operator with an external electrostatic potential. The latter describes a relativistic quantum electron moving in the field of some (pointwise or extended) nuclei. The main question we ask is whether the eigenvalue is minimal when the nuclear charge is concentrated at one single point. This well-known property in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics has escaped all attempts of proof in the relativistic case.

math.AP↗
arXiv2022

Improved Lieb-Oxford bound on the indirect and exchange energies

The Lieb-Oxford inequality provides a lower bound on the Coulomb energy of a classical system of $N$ identical charges only in terms of their one-particle density. We prove here a new estimate on the best constant in this inequality. Numerical evaluation provides the value 1.58, which is a significant improvement to the previously known value 1.64. The best constant has recently been shown to be larger than 1.44. In a second part, we prove that the constant can be reduced to 1.25 when the inequality is restricted to Hartree-Fock states. This is the first proof that the exchange term is always much lower than the full indirect Coulomb energy.

math-ph↗
arXiv2022

Coulomb and Riesz gases: The known and the unknown

We review what is known, unknown and expected about the mathematical properties of Coulomb and Riesz gases. Those describe infinite configurations of points in $\mathbb{R}^d$ interacting with the Riesz potential $\pm |x|^{-s}$ (resp. $-\log|x|$ for $s=0$). Our presentation follows the standard point of view of statistical mechanics, but we also mention how these systems arise in other important situations (e.g. in random matrix theory). The main question addressed in the article is how to properly define the associated infinite point process and characterize it using some (renormalized) equilibrium equation. This is largely open in the long range case $s d$. In the last part we discuss phase transitions and mention what is expected on physical grounds.

math-ph↗
arXiv2022

Grand-Canonical Optimal Transport

We study a generalization of the multi-marginal optimal transport problem, which has no fixed number of marginals $N$ and is inspired of statistical mechanics. It consists in optimizing a linear combination of the costs for all the possible $N$'s, while fixing a certain linear combination of the corresponding marginals.

math.OC↗
arXiv2021

Optimizers for the finite-rank Lieb-Thirring inequality

The finite-rank Lieb-Thirring inequality provides an estimate on a Riesz sum of the $N$ lowest eigenvalues of a Schr\"odinger operator $-\Delta-V(x)$ in terms of an $L^p(\mathbb{R}^d)$ norm of the potential $V$. We prove here the existence of an optimizing potential for each $N$, discuss its qualitative properties and the Euler--Lagrange equation (which is a system of coupled nonlinear Schr\"odinger equations) and study in detail the behavior of optimizing sequences. In particular, under the condition $\gamma>\max\{0,2-d/2\}$ on the Riesz exponent in the inequality, we prove the compactness of all the optimizing sequences up to translations. We also show that the optimal Lieb-Thirring constant cannot be stationary in $N$, which sheds a new light on a conjecture of Lieb-Thirring. In dimension $d=1$ at $\gamma=3/2$, we show that the optimizers with $N$ negative eigenvalues are exactly the Korteweg-de Vries $N$--solitons and that optimizing sequences must approach the corresponding manifold. Our work covers the critical case $\gamma=0$ in dimension $d\geq3$ (Cwikel-Lieb-Rozenblum inequality) for which we exhibit and use a link with invariants of the Yamabe problem.

math.AP↗
arXiv2020

The periodic Lieb-Thirring inequality

We discuss the Lieb-Thirring inequality for periodic systems, which has the same optimal constant as the original inequality for finite systems. This allows us to formulate a new conjecture about the value of its best constant. To demonstrate the importance of periodic states, we prove that the 1D Lieb-Thirring inequality at the special exponent $\gamma=3/2$ admits a one-parameter family of periodic optimizers, interpolating between the one-bound state and the uniform potential. Finally, we provide numerical simulations in 2D which support our conjecture that optimizers could be periodic.

math-ph↗
arXiv2020

The double-power nonlinear Schr\"odinger equation and its generalizations: uniqueness, non-degeneracy and applications

In this paper we first prove a general result about the uniqueness and non-degeneracy of positive radial solutions to equations of the form $\Delta u+g(u)=0$. Our result applies in particular to the double power non-linearity where $g(u)=u^q-u^p-\mu u$ for $p>q>1$ and $\mu>0$, which we discuss with more details. In this case, the non-degeneracy of the unique solution $u_\mu$ allows us to derive its behavior in the two limits $\mu\to0$ and $\mu\to\mu_*$ where $\mu_*$ is the threshold of existence. This gives the uniqueness of energy minimizers at fixed mass in certain regimes. We also make a conjecture about the variations of the $L^2$ mass of $u_\mu$ in terms of $\mu$, which we illustrate with numerical simulations. If valid, this conjecture would imply the uniqueness of energy minimizers in all cases and also give some important information about the orbital stability of $u_\mu$.

math.AP↗
arXiv2020

Dirac-Coulomb operators with general charge distribution. II. The lowest eigenvalue

Consider the Coulomb potential $-\mu\ast|x|^{-1}$ generated by a non-negative finite measure $\mu$. It is well known that the lowest eigenvalue of the corresponding Schr\"odinger operator $-\Delta/2-\mu\ast|x|^{-1}$ is minimized, at fixed mass $\mu(\mathbb{R}^3)=\nu$, when $\mu$ is proportional to a delta. In this paper we investigate the conjecture that the same holds for the Dirac operator $-i\alpha\cdot\nabla+\beta-\mu\ast|x|^{-1}$. In a previous work on the subject we proved that this operator is self-adjoint when $\mu$ has no atom of mass larger than or equal to 1, and that its eigenvalues are given by min-max formulas. Here we consider the critical mass $\nu_1$, below which the lowest eigenvalue does not dive into the lower continuum spectrum for all $\mu\geq0$ with $\mu(\mathbb{R}^3)<\nu_1$. We first show that $\nu_1$ is related to the best constant in a new scaling-invariant Hardy-type inequality. Our main result is that for all $0\leq\nu<\nu_1$, there exists an optimal measure $\mu\geq0$ giving the lowest possible eigenvalue at fixed mass $\mu(\mathbb{R}^3)=\nu$, which concentrates on a compact set of Lebesgue measure zero. The last property is shown using a new unique continuation principle for Dirac operators. The existence proof is based on the concentration-compactness principle.

math.SP↗