Mean-Field Limits in Statistical Dynamics

Abstract: These lectures notes are aimed at introducing the reader to some recent mathematical tools and results for the mean-field limit in statistical dynamics. As a warm-up, lecture 1 reviews the approach to the mean-field limit in classical mechanics following the ideas of W. Braun, K. Hepp and R.L. Dobrushin, based on the notions of phase space empirical measures, Klimontovich solutions and Monge-Kantorovich-Wasserstein distances between probability measures. Lecture 2 discusses an analogue of the notion of Klimontovich solution in quantum dynamics, and explains how this notion appears in Pickl's method to handle the case of interaction potentials with a Coulomb type singularity at the origin. Finally, lecture 3 explains how the mean-field and the classical limits can be taken jointly on quantum $N$-particle dynamics, leading to the Vlasov equation. These lectures are based on a series of joint works with C. Mouhot and T. Paul.