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arXiv:2001.06110

Quantum Chaos in a Rydberg Atom System

Yochai Werman

Published Jan 16, 2020• 2 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

A recent proposal by Hallam et al. suggested using the chaotic properties of the semiclassical equations of motion, obtained by the time dependent variational principle (TDVP), as a characterization of quantum chaos. In this paper, we calculate the Lyapunov spectrum of the semiclassical theory approximating the quantum dynamics of a strongly interacting Rydberg atom array, which lead to periodic motion. In addition, we calculate the effect of quantum fluctuations around this approximation, and obtain the escape rate from the periodic orbit. We compare this rate to the rate extracted from the exact solution of the quantum theory, and find an order of magnitude discrepancy. We conclude that in this case, chaos in the TDVP equations does not correpond to phsyical properties of the system. Our result complement those of Ho et al. regarding the escape rate from the semiclassical periodic orbit.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.2001.06110

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A recent proposal by Hallam et al. suggested using the chaotic properties of the semiclassical equations of motion, obtained by the time dependent variational principle (TDVP), as a characterization of quantum chaos. In this paper, we calculate the Lyapunov spectrum of the semiclassical theory approximating the quantum dynamics of a strongly interacting Rydberg atom array, which lead to periodic motion. In addition, we calculate the effect of quantum fluctuations around this approximation, and obtain the escape rate from the periodic orbit. We compare this rate to the rate extracted from the exact solution of the quantum theory, and find an order of magnitude discrepancy. We conclude that in this case, chaos in the TDVP equations does not correpond to phsyical properties of the system. Our result complement those of Ho et al. regarding the escape rate from the semiclassical periodic orbit.
The correspondence between the statistical properties of the evolution of a quantum system and Lyapunov instability and the chaos of its semiclassical analog has been demonstrated. The results of the analyses of atomic motion in a laser field in the semiclassical approximation (dynamics is described by several nonlinear equations) and without this approximation (dynamics is described by an infinite system of linear equations) are compared. In the ranges of the parameters for which the semiclassical dynamics of point-like atoms is unstable, the fast “spreading” of quantized wave packets in the momentum space is observed. Thus, deterministic chaos “imitates” the statistics of the quantum nondeterministic effects, although the semiclassical and quantum solutions are fundamentally different.
Dynamical chaos has recently been shown to exist in the Gaussian approximation in quantum mechanics and in the self-consistent mean field approach to studying the dynamics of quantum fields. In this study, we first note that any variational approximation to the dynamics of a quantum system based on the Dirac action principle leads to a classical Hamiltonian dynamics for the variational parameters. Since this Hamiltonian is generically nonlinear and nonintegrable, the dynamics thus generated can be chaotic, in distinction to the exact quantum evolution. We then restrict our attention to a system of two biquadratically coupled quantum oscillators and study two variational schemes, the leading order large-NNN (four canonical variables) and Hartree (six canonical variables) approximations. The chaos seen in the approximate dynamics is an artifact of the approximations: this is demonstrated by the fact that its onset occurs on the same characteristic time scale as the breakdown of the approximations when compared to numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation.
The surprisingly long-lasting oscillations observed in the dynamics of highly excited states of chains of Rydberg atoms defy the expectation that interacting systems should thermalize fast. The phenomenon is reminiscent of wavepackets in quantum billiards that trace classical periodic orbits. While analogs of the associated scarred eigenfunctions have been found for Rydberg chains, an underlying classical limit hosting periodic orbits has remained elusive. Here we generalize the Rydberg (pseudospin S=1/2S=1/2S=1/2) system to a chain of arbitrary spin SSS. Its classical limit features unexpectedly stable periodic orbits that are essential to understand the emergence of robust, parametrically suppressed quantum chaoticity, with semi-classical coherence times diverging as S\sqrt{S}S​. The classical limit successfully explains several empirical features of the quantum limit.
Describing general quantum many-body dynamics is a challenging task due to the exponential growth of the Hilbert space with system size. The time-dependent variational principle (TDVP) provides a powerful tool to tackle this task by projecting quantum evolution onto a classical dynamical system within a variational manifold. In classical systems, periodic orbits play a crucial role in understanding the structure of the phase space and the long-term behavior of the system. However, finding periodic orbits is generally difficult, and their existence and properties in generic TDVP dynamics over matrix product states have remained largely unexplored. In this work, we develop an algorithm to systematically identify and characterize periodic orbits in TDVP dynamics. Applying our method to the periodically kicked Ising model, we uncover both stable and unstable periodic orbits. We characterize the Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser tori in the vicinity of stable periodic orbits and track the change of the periodic orbits as we modify the Hamiltonian parameters. We observe that periodic orbits exist at any value of the coupling constant of the kicked Ising model between prethermal and fully thermalizing regimes, but their relevance to quantum dynamics and imprint on quantum eigenstates diminishes as the system leaves the prethermal regime. Our results demonstrate that periodic orbits provide valuable insights into the TDVP approximation of quantum many-body evolution and establish a closer connection between quantum and classical chaos.
Now, many different approaches have been presented to study the different semi-classical models derived from the Dicke Hamiltonian, which reflect a fact that the quantum-mechanical spin possesses no direct classical analog. The Hartree-Fock-type approximation is one of the widely used approaches, with which we derive the Heisenberg equations of motion for the system and replace the operators in these equations with the corresponding expectation values. In the present paper, we investigate the role of quantum phase transition in determining the chaotic property of the time-dependent driven Dicke model. The semi-classical Hamiltonian is derived by evaluating the expectation value of the Dicke Hamiltonian in a state, which is a product state of photonic and atomic coherent states. Based on the inverse of the relations between the position-momentum representation and the Bosonic creation-annihilation operators, the Hamiltonian is rewritten in the position-momentum representation and it undergoes a spontaneous symmetry-breaking phase transition, which is directly analogous to the quantum phase transition of the quantum system. In order to depict the Poincaré sections, which are used to analyze the trajectories through the four-dimensional phase space, we give the equations of motion of system from the derivatives of the semi-classical Hamiltonian for a variety of different parameters and initial conditions. According to the Dicke quantum phase transition observed from the experimental setup , we study the effect of a monochromatic non-adiabatic modulation of the atom-field coupling in Dicke model (i.e., the driven Dicke model) on the system chaos by adjusting the pump laser intensity. The change from periodic track to chaotic figure reflects the quantum properties of the system, especially the quantum phase transition point, which is a key position for people to analyse the shift from periodic orbit to chaos. In an undriven case, the system reduces to the standard Dicke model. We discover from the Poincaré sections that the system undergoes a change from the classical periodic orbit to a number of chaotic trajectories and in the superradiant phase area, the whole phase space is completely chaotic. When the static and driving coupling both exist, the system shows rich chaotic motion. The ground state properties are mainly determined by the static coupling, while the orbit of the system is adjusted by the driving coupling. If the static coupling is greater than the critical coupling, the system displays completely chaotic images in the Poincaré sections, and the periodic orbits in the chaos can also be adjusted by the strong driving coupling. While the static coupling is less than the critical coupling, the system can also show the chaotic images by adjusting the driving coupling strength and oscillation frequency. Moreover, by tuning the oscillation frequency, the Poincaré sections may change from the classical orbits to the chaos, and back to the classical orbits in the normal phase of the system.
Some quantum optical models possessing a transition from regular to chaotic dynamics and influence of `quantum chaos' to squeezing are investigated. Particular cases of semiclassical dynamics of a single atom and cooperative system of these atoms with (2j + 1)--equidistant levels interacting with a quantized photon mode in an ideal cavity were considered. Corresponding equations of motion are received without the rotation-wave approximation. Chaotic behavior and squeezing degree time dependence were obtained in computer simulations for coupling constant values or order of the atomic frequency.