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arXiv:1009.3288 · Physical Review E

Quantum chaos of a mixed open system of kicked cold atoms

Yevgeny Bar Lev, Shmuel Fishman, Edward Ott, Thomas M. Antonsen

Published Jan 5, 2011• 16 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The quantum and classical dynamics of particles kicked by a Gaussian attractive potential are studied. Classically, it is an open mixed system (the motion in some parts of the phase space is chaotic, and in some parts it is regular). The fidelity (Loschmidt echo) is found to exhibit oscillations that can be determined from classical considerations but are sensitive to phase space structures that are smaller than Planck's constant. Families of quasienergies are determined from classical phase space structures. Substantial differences between the classical and quantum dynamics are found for time-dependent scattering. It is argued that the system can be experimentally realized by cold atoms kicked by a Gaussian light beam.

DOI
10.1103/physreve.83.016204

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The quantum and classical dynamics of particles kicked by a Gaussian attractive potential are studied. Classically, it is an open mixed system (the motion in some parts of the phase space is chaotic, and in some parts it is regular). The fidelity (Loschmidt echo) is found to exhibit oscillations that can be determined from classical considerations but are sensitive to phase space structures that are smaller than Planck's constant. Families of quasienergies are determined from classical phase space structures. Substantial differences between the classical and quantum dynamics are found for time-dependent scattering. It is argued that the system can be experimentally realized by cold atoms kicked by a Gaussian light beam.
This work discusses the experimental realization of a mixed regular-chaotic phase space in a macroscopic quantum system. The effective Planck's constant of the system can be varied in a large range. Therefore, the semi-classical limit of the system can be studied, where the initial size of the many particle wave packet is much smaller than typical structures of the phase space. Thus, different structures of the phase space can be resolved. In a weakly driven system, the Poincaré-Birkhoff scenario is investigated by the dispersion of the wave packet at a stable or unstable fixed point. In a strongly driven system, different dynamics of a wave packet is found, dependent on preparation in a regular island or the chaotic sea. The time evolution can be described by a classical model, which is in good agreement with experiment as well as the mean field model for the considered observables. \n \nIn an independent experiment using an atomic beam setup the generation of motional coherence of a single atom by spontaneous emission of a single photon has been demonstrated.
We analyze the interplay of chaos, entanglement, and decoherence in a system of qubits whose collective behavior is that of a quantum kicked top. The dynamical entanglement between a single qubit and the rest can be calculated from the mean of the collective spin operators. This allows the possibility of efficiently measuring entanglement dynamics in an experimental setting. We consider a deeply quantum regime and show that signatures of chaos are present in the dynamical entanglement for parameters accessible in an experiment that we propose using cold atoms. The evolution of the entanglement depends on the support of the initial state on regular versus chaotic Floquet eigenstates, whose phase-space distributions are concentrated on the corresponding regular or chaotic eigenstructures. We include the effect of decoherence via a realistic model and show that the signatures of chaos in the entanglement dynamics persist in the presence of decoherence. In addition, the classical chaos affects the decoherence rate itself.
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.
Laser-cooled atoms offer an excellent platform for testing new ideas of quantum control and measurement. I will discuss experiments where we use light and magnetic fields to drive and monitor non-trivial quantum dynamics of a large spin-angular momentum associated with an atomic hyperfine ground state. We can design Hamiltonians to generate arbitrary spin states and perform a full quantum state reconstruction of the results. We have implemented and verified time optimal controls to generate a broad variety of spin states, including spin-squeezed states useful for metrology. Yields achieved are of the range 0.8-0.9.We present a first experimental demonstration of the quantum kicked top, a popular paradigm for quantum and classical chaos. We make `movies' of the evolving quantum state which provides a direct observation of phase space dynamics of this system. The spin dynamics seen in the experiment includes dynamical tunneling between regular islands, rapid spreading of states throughout the chaotic sea, and surprisingly robust signatures of classical phase space structures. Our data show differences between regular and chaotic dynamics in the sensitivity to perturbations of the quantum kicked top Hamiltonian and in the average electron-nuclear spin entanglement during the first 40 kicks. The difference, while clear, is modest due to the small size of the spin.
This thesis deals with an investigation of the chaotic dynamics of an atom optics δ-kicked rotor (AOKR) system, a paradigm of classical and quantum chaos. The AOKR rotor is realized by subjecting a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of ⁸⁷Rb atoms to a periodic potential. The potential in the form of a standing wave, obtained from a far detuned laser beam is turned on and off periodically in time, producing short pulses (kicks) of laser light. For certain values of the period between the kicks, resonant effects known as quantum resonances are observed that are purely quantum effects. Quantum resonances have been examined in the AOKR for a series of kicks. For large number of kicks, the width of these resonances have been shown to become narrow. Higher order resonances corresponding to fractional Talbot times have been observed in the system. These quantum resonant effects have been found to depend sensitively on the initial velocity of the atoms. The first three primary resonances have been studied in detail, by measuring the momentum distribution and the kinetic energy of the atoms, for two and four kicks. A sinusoidal dependence of the energy on the initial momentum has been observed for two kicks. By increasing the number of kicks, the system becomes extremely sensitive to the initial momentum of the atoms. For four kicks, a more complex behavior is observed in the system energy. A scheme for investigating Loschmidt time reversal of chaotic dynamics of the atomic deBroglie waves have been described in the AOKR system. It has been demonstrated that the initial wave function of an ensemble of ultracold atoms is restored, after a series of delta-kicks in what is essentially a multiple beam interferometry experiment. During the process, the evolution of the system for a fraction of the atoms with a very small initial momentum is reversed, which results in a narrowing of the momentum distribution. It is hoped that the research presented in this thesis will significantly contribute to the understanding of the connection between the classical and quantum worlds.