Semi-classical limit of the bottom of spectrum of a Schrödinger operator on a path space over a compact Riemannian manifold

We determine the limit of the bottom of spectrum of Schrödinger operators with variable coefficients on Wiener spaces and path spaces over finite-dimensional compact Riemannian manifolds in the semiclassical limit. These are extensions of the results in [S. Aida, Semiclassical limit of the lowest eigenvalue of a Schrödinger operator on a Wiener space, J. Funct. Anal. 203 (2) (2003) 401–424]. The problem on path spaces over Riemannian manifolds is considered as a problem on Wiener spaces by using Ito’s map. However the coefficient operator is not a bounded linear operator and the dependence on the path is not continuous in the uniform convergence topology if the Riemannian curvature tensor on the underling manifold is not equal to 0. The difficulties are solved by using unitary transformations of the Schrödinger operators by approximate ground state functions and estimates in the rough path analysis. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.