An improved semi-Lagrangian time splitting spectral method for the semi-classical Schrödinger equation with vector potentials using NUFFT

In this paper, we propose a new time splitting Fourier spectral method for the semi-classical Schrödinger equation with vector potentials. Compared with the results in [21], our method achieves spectral accuracy in space by interpolating the Fourier series via the NonUniform Fast Fourier Transform (NUFFT) algorithm in the convection step. The NUFFT algorithm helps maintain high spatial accuracy of Fourier method, and at the same time improve the efficiency from O(N2)O(N2) (of direct computation) to O(Nlog⁡N)O(Nlog⁡N) operations, where N is the total number of grid points. The kinetic step and potential step are solved by analytical solution with pseudo-spectral approximation, and, therefore, we obtain spectral accuracy in space for the whole method. We prove that the method is unconditionally stable, and we show improved error estimates for both the wave function and physical observables, which agree with the results in [3] for vanishing potential cases and are superior to those in [21]. Extensive one and two dimensional numerical studies are presented to verify the properties of the proposed method, and simulations of 3D problems are demonstrated to show its potential for future practical applications.