Boris Hanin

Random eigenfunctions of energy E for the isotropic harmonic oscillator in R^d have a U(d) symmetry and are in some ways analogous to random spherical harmonics of fixed degree on S^d, whose nodal sets have been the subject of many recent studies. However, there is a fundamentally new aspect to this ensemble, namely the existence of allowed and forbidden regions. In the allowed region, the Hermite functions behave like spherical harmonics, while in the forbidden region, Hermite functions are exponentially decaying and it is unclear to what extent they oscillate and have zeros.

The purpose of this talk is to present several results about the expected volume of the zero set of a random Hermite function in both the allowed and forbidden regions as well as in a shrinking tube around the caustic. The results are based on an explicit formula for the scaling limit around the caustic of the fixed energy spectral projector for the isotropic harmonic oscillator. This is joint work with Steve Zelditch and Peng Zhou.