Wigner Measures Approach to the Classical Limit of the Nelson Model: Convergence of Dynamics and Ground State Energy

We consider the classical limit of the Nelson model, a system of stable nucleons interacting with a meson field. We prove convergence of the quantum dynamics towards the evolution of the coupled Klein–Gordon–Schrödinger equation. Also, we show that the ground state energy level of N nucleons, when N is large and the meson field approaches its classical value, is given by the infimum of the classical energy functional at a fixed density of particles. Our study relies on a recently elaborated approach for mean field theory and uses Wigner measures.