The Time-Relaxation Limit for Weak Solutions to the Quantum Hydrodynamics System

This paper analyzes weak solutions of the quantum hydrodynamics (QHD) system with a collisional term posed on the one-dimensional torus. The main goal of our analysis is to rigorously prove the time-relaxation limit towards solutions to the quantum drift-diffusion (QDD) equation. The existence of global in-time, finite energy weak solutions can be proved by straightforwardly exploiting the polar factorization and wave function lifting tools previously developed by the authors. However, the sole energy bounds are not sufficient to show compactness and then pass to the limit. For this reason, we consider a class of more regular weak solutions (termed GCP solutions), determined by the finiteness of a functional involving the chemical potential associated with the system. For solutions in this class and bounded away from vacuum, we prove the time-relaxation limit and provide an explicit convergence rate. Our analysis exploits compactness tools and does not require the existence (and smoothness) of solutions to the limiting equations or the well-preparedness of the initial data. As a by-product of our analysis, we also establish the existence of global in time H² H 2 solutions to a nonlinear Schrödinger–Langevin equation and construct solutions to the QDD equation as strong limits of GCP solutions to the QHD system.