arXiv subjects

S. Ivan Trapasso

Publications and source records attributed to S. Ivan Trapasso.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

The Stability Landscape in Wave-Packet Scattering: Geometric Rigidity and Sharp Sobolev Thresholds

A central challenge in modern harmonic analysis is to quantify the balance between the approximation power of finely resolved multiscale representations and their robustness to nonlinear changes of coordinates, a problem arising naturally in signal processing and partial differential equations. Motivated by Mallat's pioneering results on the wavelet scattering transform, we identify a sharp resolution--robustness trade-off for scattering-type nonlinear multiscale representations built upon general wave-packet systems, showing that stability under small diffeomorphisms is governed by the geometry of the underlying frequency decomposition. In particular, for wave-packet systems with finer transverse resolution than wavelets, including curvelets and shearlets, we establish a geometric rigidity phenomenon: arbitrarily small, smooth, compactly supported deformations can move high-frequency mass across adjacent channels, leading to instability already at the first scattering layer. We complement this obstruction by identifying the sharp Sobolev threshold for deformation stability: below the critical regularity no Mallat-type estimate can hold, while at and above it stability is recovered by means of matched commutator bounds that allow deformations to be propagated through the frequency channels. Together, these results provide a systematic deformation-stability theory for Euclidean scattering transforms and yield the first stability estimates intrinsic to the scattering architecture beyond the classical wavelet setting.

math.FA↗

arXiv2026

A quantum harmonic analysis approach to nonlinear time-frequency concentration

We study nonlinear concentration problems for time-frequency distributions in the Cohen class. Using recent techniques from quantum harmonic analysis (QHA) we provide both positive and negative results, such as sufficient conditions for the existence of optimizers in terms of the ``window operator'' and explicit examples where the supremum is never attained. We also study the structural properties of window operators, in particular operators that yield weakly continuous concentration functionals and operators for which the nonlinear concentration problem admits an optimizer, also beyond the Heisenberg representation. We then consider generalizations to the study of concentration problems for phase space representations of operators. We consider generalized Husimi distributions via quantum convolution, and their optimization problem when optimizing over Hilbert--Schmidt and density operators. Lastly, we consider representations of operators on double phase space, in the spirit of quantum time-frequency analysis, and give a full solution in terms of the Weyl symbols.

math.FA↗

arXiv2026

On the existence of optimizers for nonlinear time-frequency concentration problems: the Born--Jordan distribution

We study the $L^p$ concentration problem for the Born--Jordan distribution in dimension $d>1$, thus extending the one-dimensional analysis in [Stra-Svela-Trapasso, J. Math. Pures Appl. (2026)]. We show that the existence of concentration optimizers depends on the exponent $p$ with a critical threshold at $p_*(d)= \frac{2d}{d-2}$ for $d\geq2$ (with the understanding that $p_*(2)=\infty$). In particular, for subcritical exponents $1\leq p p_*(d)$ we show that the functional is unbounded. We also provide the complete solution in the (significantly more) challenging critical regime in dimension $d=2$.

math.CA↗

arXiv2025

On the existence of optimizers for nonlinear time-frequency concentration problems: the Wigner distribution

We prove that, for any measurable phase space subset $\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^{2d}$ with $0<|\Omega|<\infty$ and any $1\le p < \infty$, the nonlinear concentration problem $$ \sup_{f \in L^2(\mathbb{R}^d)\setminus\{0\}}\frac{\|Wf\|_{L^p(\Omega)}}{\|f\|_{L^2}^2}$$ admits an optimizer, where $Wf$ is the Wigner distribution of $f$. The main obstruction is that $Wf$ is covariant (not invariant) under time-frequency shifts, which impedes weak upper semicontinuity, so the effects of constructive interference must be taken into account. We close this compactness gap via concentration compactness for Heisenberg-type dislocations, together with a new asymptotic formula that quantifies the limiting contribution to concentration over $\Omega$ from asymptotically separated wave packets. When $p=\infty$ we also identify the sharp constant $2^d$ and show that it is attained. We also discuss some related extensions: For $\tau$-Wigner distributions with $\tau \in (0,1)$ we isolate a chain phenomenon that obstructs the same strategy beyond the Wigner case ($\tau=1/2$), while for the Born-Jordan distribution in $d=1$ we obtain weak continuity, and thus existence of concentration optimizers for all $1\le p<\infty$ (the $p=\infty$ supremum equals $\pi$ but is not attained).

math.CA↗

arXiv2025

Wave packet analysis of semigroups generated by quadratic differential operators

We perform a phase space analysis of evolution equations associated with the Weyl quantization $q^{\mathrm{w}}$ of a complex quadratic form $q$ on $\mathbb{R}^{2d}$ with non-positive real part. In particular, we obtain pointwise bounds for the matrix coefficients of the Gabor wave packet decomposition of the generated semigroup $e^{tq^{\mathrm{w}}}$ if $\mathrm{Re} (q) \le 0$ and the companion singular space associated is trivial. This result is then leveraged to achieve a comprehensive analysis of the phase regularity of $e^{tq^{\mathrm{w}}}$ with $\mathrm{Re} (q) \le 0$, thereby extending the $L^2$ analysis of quadratic semigroups initiated by Hitrik and Pravda-Starov to general modulation spaces $M^p(\mathbb{R}^d)$, $1 \le p \le \infty$, with optimal explicit bounds.

math.AP↗

arXiv2025

Generalized moduli of continuity under irregular or random deformations via multiscale analysis

Motivated by the problem of robustness to deformations of the input for deep convolutional neural networks, we identify signal classes which are inherently stable to irregular deformations induced by distortion fields $τ\in L^\infty(\mathbb{R}^d;\mathbb{R}^d)$, to be characterized in terms of a generalized modulus of continuity associated with the deformation operator. Resorting to ideas of harmonic and multiscale analysis, we prove that for signals in multiresolution approximation spaces $U_s$ at scale $s$, stability in $L^2$ holds in the regime $\|τ\|_{L^\infty}/s\ll 1$ - essentially as an effect of the uncertainty principle. Instability occurs when $\|τ\|_{L^\infty}/s\gg 1$, and we provide a sharp upper bound for the asymptotic growth rate. The stability results are then extended to signals in the Besov space $B^{d/2}_{2,1}$ tailored to the given multiresolution approximation. We also consider the case of more general time-frequency deformations. Finally, we provide stochastic versions of the aforementioned results, namely we study the issue of stability in mean when $τ(x)$ is modeled as a random field (not bounded, in general) with identically distributed variables $|τ(x)|$, $x\in\mathbb{R}^d$.

math.FA↗

arXiv2025

Phase space analysis of finite and infinite dimensional Fresnel integrals

The full characterization of the class of Fresnel integrable functions is an open problem in functional analysis, with significant applications to mathematical physics (Feynman path integrals) and the analysis of the Schrödinger equation. In finite dimension, we prove the Fresnel integrability of functions in the Sjöstrand class $M^{\infty,1}$ - a family of continuous and bounded functions, locally enjoying the mild regularity of the Fourier transform of an integrable function. This result broadly extends the current knowledge on the Fresnel integrability of Fourier transforms of finite complex measures, and relies upon ideas and techniques of Gabor wave packet analysis. We also discuss the problem of designing infinite-dimensional extensions of this result, obtaining the first, non-trivial concrete realization of a general framework of projective functional extensions introduced by Albeverio and Mazzucchi. As an interesting byproduct, we obtain the exact $M^{\infty,1} \to L^\infty$ operator norm of the free Schrödinger evolution operator.

math.FA↗

arXiv2025

Compressed sensing for inverse problems II: applications to deconvolution, source recovery, and MRI

This paper extends the sample complexity theory for ill-posed inverse problems developed in a recent work by the authors [`Compressed sensing for inverse problems and the sample complexity of the sparse Radon transform', J. Eur. Math. Soc., to appear], which was originally focused on the sparse Radon transform. We demonstrate that the underlying abstract framework, based on infinite-dimensional compressed sensing and generalized sampling techniques, can effectively handle a variety of practical applications. Specifically, we analyze three case studies: (1) The reconstruction of a sparse signal from a finite number of pointwise blurred samples; (2) The recovery of the (sparse) source term of an elliptic partial differential equation from finite samples of the solution; and (3) A moderately ill-posed variation of the classical sensing problem of recovering a wavelet-sparse signal from finite Fourier samples, motivated by magnetic resonance imaging. For each application, we establish rigorous recovery guarantees by verifying the key theoretical requirements, including quasi-diagonalization and coherence bounds. Our analysis reveals that careful consideration of balancing properties and optimized sampling strategies can lead to improved reconstruction performance. The results provide a unified theoretical foundation for compressed sensing approaches to inverse problems while yielding practical insights for specific applications.

math.FA↗

arXiv2024

Phase space analysis of higher-order dispersive equations with point interactions

We investigate nonlinear, higher-order dispersive equations with measure (or even less regular) potentials and initial data with low regularity. Our approach is of distributional nature and relies on the phase space analysis (via Gabor wave packets) of the corresponding fundamental solution - in fact, locating the modulation/amalgam space regularity of such generalized Fresnel-type oscillatory functions is a problem of independent interest in harmonic analysis.

math.AP↗

arXiv2024

Phase space analysis of spectral multipliers for the twisted Laplacian

We prove boundedness results on modulation and Wiener amalgam spaces for some families of spectral multipliers for the twisted Laplacian. We exploit the metaplectic equivalence relating the twisted Laplacian with a partial harmonic oscillator, leading to a general transference principle for the corresponding spectral multipliers. Our analysis encompasses powers of the twisted Laplacian and oscillating multipliers, with applications to the corresponding Schrödinger and wave flows. On the other hand, elaborating on the twisted convolution structure of the eigenprojections and its connection with the Weyl product of symbols, we obtain a complete picture of the boundedness of the heat flow for the twisted Laplacian. Results of the same kind are established for fractional heat flows via subordination.

math.AP↗

arXiv2024

Compressed sensing for inverse problems and the sample complexity of the sparse Radon transform

Compressed sensing allows for the recovery of sparse signals from few measurements, whose number is proportional to the sparsity of the unknown signal, up to logarithmic factors. The classical theory typically considers either random linear measurements or subsampled isometries and has found many applications, including accelerated magnetic resonance imaging, which is modeled by the subsampled Fourier transform. In this work, we develop a general theory of infinite-dimensional compressed sensing for abstract inverse problems, possibly ill-posed, involving an arbitrary forward operator. This is achieved by considering a generalized restricted isometry property, and a quasi-diagonalization property of the forward map. As a notable application, for the first time, we obtain rigorous recovery estimates for the sparse Radon transform (i.e., with a finite number of angles $θ_1,\dots,θ_m$), which models computed tomography, in both the parallel-beam and the fan-beam settings. In the case when the unknown signal is $s$-sparse with respect to an orthonormal basis of compactly supported wavelets, we prove stable recovery under the condition \[ m\gtrsim s, \] up to logarithmic factors.

math.FA↗

arXiv2022

On heat equations associated with fractional harmonic oscillators

We establish some fixed-time decay estimates in Lebesgue spaces for the fractional heat propagator $e^{-tH^β}$, $t, β>0$, associated with the harmonic oscillator $H=-Δ+ |x|^2$. We then prove some local and global wellposedness results for nonlinear fractional heat equations.

math.AP↗

arXiv2022

On the existence of optimizers for time-frequency concentration problems

We consider the problem of the maximum concentration in a fixed measurable subset $Ω\subset\mathbb{R}^{2d}$ of the time-frequency space for functions $f\in L^2(\mathbb{R}^{d})$. The notion of concentration can be made mathematically precise by considering the $L^p$-norm on $Ω$ of some time-frequency distribution of $f$ such as the ambiguity function $A(f)$. We provide a positive answer to an open maximization problem, by showing that for every subset $Ω\subset\mathbb{R}^{2d}$ of finite measure and every $1\leq p<\infty$, there exists an optimizer for \[ \sup\{\|A(f)\|_{L^p(Ω)}:\ f\in L^2(\mathbb{R}^{d}),\ \|f\|_{L^2}=1 \}. \] The lack of weak upper semicontinuity and the invariance under time-frequency shifts make the problem challenging. The proof is based on concentration compactness with time-frequency shifts as dislocations, and certain integral bounds and asymptotic decoupling estimates for the ambiguity function. We also discuss the case $p=\infty$ and related optimization problems for the time correlation function, the cross-ambiguity function with a fixed window, and for functions in the modulation spaces $M^q(\mathbb{R}^{d})$, $0<q<2$, equipped with continuous or discrete-type (quasi-)norms.

math.CA↗

arXiv2022

Stability of the scattering transform for deformations with minimal regularity

Within the mathematical analysis of deep convolutional neural networks, the wavelet scattering transform introduced by Stéphane Mallat is a unique example of how the ideas of multiscale analysis can be combined with a cascade of modulus nonlinearities to build a nonexpansive, translation invariant signal representation with provable geometric stability properties, namely Lipschitz continuity to the action of small $C^2$ diffeomorphisms - a remarkable result for both theoretical and practical purposes, inherently depending on the choice of the filters and their arrangement into a hierarchical architecture. In this note, we further investigate the intimate relationship between the scattering structure and the regularity of the deformation in the Hölder regularity scale $C^α$, $α>0$. We are able to precisely identify the stability threshold, proving that stability is still achievable for deformations of class $C^α$, $α>1$, whereas instability phenomena can occur at lower regularity levels modelled by $C^α$, $0\le α<1$. While the behaviour at the threshold given by Lipschitz (or even $C^1$) regularity remains beyond reach, we are able to prove a stability bound in that case, up to $\varepsilon$ losses.

math.FA↗

arXiv2021

On the convergence of a novel family of time slicing approximation operators for Feynman path integrals

In this note we study the properties of a sequence of approximate propagators for the Schrödinger equation, in the spirit of Feynman's path integrals. Precisely, we consider Hamiltonian operators arising as the Weyl quantization of a quadratic form in phase space, plus a bounded potential perturbation in the form of a pseudodifferential operator with a rough symbol. It is known that the corresponding Schrödinger propagator is a generalized metaplectic operator. This naturally motivates the introduction of a manageable time slicing approximation consisting of operators of the same type. By means of techniques and function spaces of time-frequency analysis it is possible to obtain several convergence results with precise rates in terms of the mesh size of the time slicing subdivision. In particular, we prove convergence in the norm operator topology in $L^2$, as well as pointwise convergence of the corresponding integral kernels for non-exceptional times.

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arXiv2020

Phase space analysis of the Hermite semigroup and applications to nonlinear global well-posedness

We study the Hermite operator $H=-Δ+|x|^2$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$ and its fractional powers $H^β$, $β>0$ in phase space. Namely, we represent functions $f$ via the so-called short-time Fourier, alias Fourier-Wigner or Bargmann transform $V_g f$ ($g$ being a fixed window function), and we measure their regularity and decay by means of mixed Lebesgue norms in phase space of $V_g f$, that is in terms of membership to modulation spaces $M^{p,q}$, $0< p,q\leq \infty$. We prove the complete range of fixed-time estimates for the semigroup $e^{-tH^β}$ when acting on $M^{p,q}$, for every $0< p,q\leq \infty$, exhibiting the optimal global-in-time decay as well as phase-space smoothing. As an application, we establish global well-posedness for the nonlinear heat equation for $H^β$ with power-type nonlinearity (focusing or defocusing), with small initial data in modulation spaces or in Wiener amalgam spaces. We show that such a global solution exhibits the same optimal decay $e^{-c t}$ as the solution of the corresponding linear equation, where $c=d^β$ is the bottom of the spectrum of $H^β$. This is in sharp contrast to what happens for the nonlinear focusing heat equation without potential, where blow-up in finite time always occurs for (even small) constant initial data - hence in $M^{\infty,1}$.

math.FA↗

arXiv2020

Dispersion, spreading and sparsity of Gabor wave packets for metaplectic and Schrödinger operators

Sparsity properties for phase-space representations of several types of operators have been extensively studied in recent papers, including pseudodifferential, Fourier integral and metaplectic operators, with applications to time-frequency analysis of Schrödinger-type evolution equations. It has been proved that such operators are approximately diagonalized by Gabor wave packets. While the latter are expected to undergo some spreading phenomenon, there is no record of this issue in the aforementioned results. In this paper we prove refined estimates for the Gabor matrix of metaplectic operators, also of generalized type, where sparsity, spreading and dispersive properties are all noticeable. We provide applications to the propagation of singularities for the Schrödinger equation.

math.FA↗

arXiv2020

On exceptional times for pointwise convergence of integral kernels in Feynman-Trotter path integrals

In the first part of the paper we provide a survey of recent results concerning the problem of pointwise convergence of integral kernels in Feynman path integral, obtained by means of time-frequency analysis techniques. We then focus on exceptional times, where the previous results do not hold, and we show that weaker forms of convergence still occur. In conclusion we offer some clues about possible physical interpretation of exceptional times.

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