On the Mean Field and Classical Limits of Quantum Mechanics

The main result in this paper is a new inequality bearing on solutions of the N-body linear Schrodinger equation and of the mean field Hartree equation. This inequality implies that the mean field limit of the quantum mechanics of N identical particles is uniform in the classical limit and provides a quantitative estimate of the quality of the approximation. This result applies to the case of C (1,1) interaction potentials. The quantity measuring the approximation of the N-body quantum dynamics by its mean field limit is analogous to the Monge-Kantorovich (or Wasserstein) distance with exponent 2. The inequality satisfied by this quantity is reminiscent of the work of Dobrushin on the mean field limit in classical mechanics [Func. Anal. Appl. 13, 115-123, (1979)]. Our approach to this problem is based on a direct analysis of the N-particle Liouville equation, and avoids using techniques based on the BBGKY hierarchy or on second quantization.