Wehrl used Glauber coherent states to define a map from quantum density matrices to classical phase space densities and conjectured that for Glauber coherent states the mininimum classical entropy would occur for density matrices equal to projectors onto coherent states. This was proved by Lieb in 1978 who also extended the conjecture to Bloch SU(2) spin-coherent states for every angular momentum$J$. This conjecture is proved here. We also recall our 1991 extension of the Wehrl map to a quantum channel from J to $${K=J+\frac{1}{2}, J+1, ... ,}$$ with $${K=\infty}$$ corresponding to the Wehrl map to classical densities. These channels were later recognized as the optimal quantum cloning channels. For each$J$and $${J < K \leqslant \infty}$$ we show that the minimal output entropy for the channels occurs for a J coherent state. We also show that coherent states both Glauber and Bloch minimize any concave functional, not just entropy.

We prove uniqueness of ground state solutions$Q$=$Q$(|$x$|) ≥ 0 of the non-linear equation $$(-\Delta)^s Q+Q-Q^{\alpha+1}= 0 \quad {\rm in} \, \mathbb{R},$$ where 0 <$s$< 1 and 0 <$α$< 4$s$/(1−2$s$) for $${s<\frac{1}{2}}$$ and 0 <$α$<$∞$for $${s\geq \frac{1}{2}}$$ . Here (−Δ)^{$s$}denotes the fractional Laplacian in one dimension. In particular, we answer affirmatively an open question recently raised by Kenig–Martel–Robbiano and we generalize (by completely different techniques) the specific uniqueness result obtained by Amick and Toland for $${s=\frac{1}{2}}$$ and$α$= 1 in [5] for the Benjamin–Ono equation.

In a recent important breakthrough D. Christodoulou has solved a long standing problem of General Relativity of evolutionary formation of trapped surfaces in the Einstein-vacuum space-times. He has identified an open set of regular initial conditions on an outgoing null hypersurface (both finite and at past null infinity) leading to a formation a trapped surface in the corresponding vacuum space-time to the future of the initial outgoing hypersurface and another incoming null hypersurface with the prescribed Minkowskian data. In this paper we give a simpler proof for a finite problem by enlarging the admissible set of initial conditions and, consistent with this, relaxing the corresponding propagation estimates just enough that a trapped surface still forms. We also reduce the number of derivatives needed in the argument from two derivatives of the curvature to just one. More importantly, the proof, which can be easily localized with respect to angular sectors, has the potential for further developments.

Durhuus and Jonsson (1995) introduced the class of “locally constructible” (LC) 3-spheres and showed that there are only exponentially many combinatorial types of simplicial LC 3-spheres. Such upper bounds are crucial for the convergence of models for 3D quantum gravity.

In our model of quantum gravity the quantum development of a Cauchy hypersurface is governed by a wave equation derived as the result of a canonical quantization process. To find physically interesting solutions of the wave equation we employ the separation of variables by considering a temporal eigenvalue problem which has a complete countable set of eigenfunctions with positive eigenvalues and also a spatial eigenvalue problem which has a complete set of eigendistributions. Assuming that the Cauchy hypersurface is asymtotically Euclidean we prove that the temporal eigenvalues are also spatial eigenvalues and the product of corresponding eigenfunctions and eigendistributions, which will be smooth functions with polynomial growth, are the physically interesting solutions of the wave equation. We consider these solutions to describe the quantum development of the Cauchy hypersurface.