Loss of regularity for supercritical nonlinear Schrödinger equations

We consider the nonlinear Schrödinger equation with defocusing, smooth, nonlinearity. Below the critical Sobolev regularity, it is known that the Cauchy problem is ill-posed. We show that this is even worse, namely that there is a loss of regularity, in the spirit of the result due to G. Lebeau in the case of the wave equation. As a consequence, the Cauchy problem for energy-supercritical equations is not well-posed in the sense of Hadamard. We reduce the problem to a supercritical WKB analysis. For super-cubic, smooth nonlinearity, this analysis is new, and relies on the introduction of a modulated energy functional à la Brenier.