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arXiv:0711.1674 · Physical Review A

Kicked-rotor quantum resonances in position space

Maxence Lepers, Véronique Zehnlé, Jean Claude Garreau

Published Apr 24, 2008• 28 citations
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Abstract

We present an approach of the kicked-rotor quantum resonances in position space, based on its analogy with the optical Talbot effect. This leads to a very simple picture of the physical mechanism underlying the dynamics and to analytical expressions for relevant physical quantities. The ballistic behavior, which is closely associated with quantum resonances, is analyzed and shown to emerge from a coherent adding of successive kicks thanks to a periodic reconstruction of the spatial wave packet.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.77.043628

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We present an approach of the kicked-rotor quantum resonances in position space, based on its analogy with the optical Talbot effect. This leads to a very simple picture of the physical mechanism underlying the dynamics and to analytical expressions for relevant physical quantities. The ballistic behavior, which is closely associated with quantum resonances, is analyzed and shown to emerge from a coherent adding of successive kicks thanks to a periodic reconstruction of the spatial wave packet.
The study of quantum resonances in the chaotic atom-optics kicked rotor system is of interest from two different perspectives. In quantum chaos, it marks out the regime of resonant quantum dynamics in which the atomic cloud displays ballistic mean energy growth due to coherent momentum transfer. Secondly, the sharp quantum resonance peaks are useful in the context of measurement of Talbot time, one of the parameter that helps in precise measurement of fine structure constant. Most of the earlier works rely on fidelity based approach and have proposed Talbot time measurement through experimental determination of the momentum space probability density of the periodically kicked atomic cloud. Fidelity approach has the disadvantage that phase reversed kicks need to be imparted as well which potentially leads to dephasing. In contrast to this, in this work, it is theoretically shown that, without manipulating the kick sequences, the quantum resonances through position space density can be measured more accurately and is experimentally feasible as well.
We examine the effect of the initial atomic momentum distribution on the dynamics of the atom-optical realisation of the quantum kicked rotor. The atoms are kicked by a pulsed optical lattice, the periodicity of which implies that quasi-momentum is conserved in the transport problem. We study and compare experimentally and theoretically two resonant limits of the kicked rotor: in the vicinity of the quantum resonances and in the semiclassical limit of vanishing kicking period. It is found that for the same experimental distribution of quasi-momenta, significant deviations from the kicked rotor model are induced close to quantum resonance, while close to the classical resonance (i.e. for small kicking period) the effect of the quasi-momentum vanishes.
The kicked rotor provides a simple yet powerful model for introducing many of the central concepts of classical and quantum chaos. Despite its apparent simplicity, it exhibits rich dynamical behavior and has found applications across a wide range of fields, including atomic and optical physics, condensed matter physics, and emerging quantum technologies. This chapter begins by exploring foundational ideas using the kicked rotor as a unifying framework. We first discuss the transition from regular to chaotic motion in the classical system, and then introduce key quantum phenomena such as dynamical localization and quantum resonances. Special attention is devoted to the emergence of characteristic time scales and their role in the quantum-classical correspondence. To make these ideas more concrete, we also provide a brief overview of experimental realizations of the kicked rotor and its variants, illustrating how theoretical concepts are implemented in practice. In the second part of the chapter, we guide the reader toward more recent and advanced developments. Topics include near-resonant dynamics, topological features of kicked systems, the emergence of quantum dynamical phases inferred from classical transport properties, and extensions to non-Hermitian physics. We conclude with a discussion of open problems and future perspectives, outlining directions in which the kicked rotor continues to offer valuable insights.
We investigate a many-body interacting system of quantum kicked rotors, where each rotor resides in its respective quantum resonance. Rich many-body dynamics are found to emerge from the interplay between the principal and secondary resonances. In particular, for both the wavepacket and bipartite entanglement entropy, we analytically demonstrate three distinct dynamical regimes -- quadratic spreading (growth), period-2 oscillation, and their hybrid -- governed by the respective symmetries of the relevant potentials. Based on these symmetries, the connection between the wavepacket and the entanglement dynamics is illustrated. Other related issues are also discussed, including higher-order resonance effects, the robustness of the predicted dynamical behaviors, extension to many-body kicked tops, and relevance to experimental studies.
We analytically investigate the analogy between a standard continuous-time quantum walk in one dimension and the evolution of the quantum kicked rotor at quantum resonance conditions. We verify that the obtained probability distributions are equal for a suitable choice of the kick strength of the rotor. We further discuss how to engineer the evolution of the walk for dynamically preparing experimentally relevant states. These states are important for future applications of the atom-optics kicked rotor for the realization of ratchets and quantum search.
We have observed high-order quantum resonances in a realization of the quantum delta-kicked rotor, using Bose-condensed Na atoms subjected to a pulsed standing wave of laser light. These resonances occur for pulse intervals that are rational fractions of the Talbot time, and are characterized by ballistic momentum transfer to the atoms. The condensate's narrow momentum distribution not only permits the observation of the quantum resonances at 3/4 and 1/3 of the Talbot time, but also allows us to study scaling laws for the resonance width in quasimomentum and pulse interval.