Convergence Rates for the Trotter Splitting for Unbounded Operators

We study convergence rates of the Trotter splitting $e^{A+L}={\lim }_{n\to \mathrm{\infty }}(e^{L\mathrm{/}n}{e}^{A\mathrm{/}n}{)}^n$ in the strong operator topology. In the first part, we use complex interpolation theory to treat generators $L$ and $A$ of contraction semigroups on Banach spaces, with $L$ relatively $A$-bounded. In the second part, we study unitary dynamics on Hilbert spaces and develop a new technique based on the concept of energy constraints. Our results provide a complete picture of the convergence rates for the Trotter splitting for all common types of Schrödinger and Dirac operators, including singular, confining and magnetic vector potentials, as well as molecular many-body Hamiltonians in dimension $d=3$. Using the Brezis-Mironescu inequality, we derive convergence rates for the Schrödinger operator with $V(x)=\pm \mathrm{\mid }x{\mathrm{\mid }}^{-a}$ potential. In each case, our conditions are fully explicit.