Abstract We investigate the dynamics of two coherently coupled dissipative time crystals. In the classical mean-field limit of infinite spin length, we identify a regime of chaotic synchronization, marked by a positive largest Lyapunov exponent and a Pearson correlation coefficient close to one. At the boundary of this regime, the Pearson coefficient varies abruptly, marking a crossover between staggered and uniform z -magnetization. To address finite-size quantum dynamics, we employ a quantum-trajectory approach and study the trajectory-resolved expectations of subsystem z -magnetizations. Their histograms over time and trajectory realizations exhibit maxima that undergo a staggered-to-uniform crossover analogous to the classical one. In analogy with the classical case, we interpret this behavior as quantum chaotic synchronization, with dissipative quantum chaos highlighted by the steady-state density matrix exhibiting Gaussian unitary ensemble statistics. The classical and quantum crossover points are different due to the noncommutativity of the infinite-time and infinite-spin-magnitude limits and the role played by entanglement in the quantum case, quantified via the two-subsystem entanglement entropy.
Abstract We investigate the dynamics of two coherently coupled dissipative time crystals. In the classical mean-field limit of infinite spin length, we identify a regime of chaotic synchronization, marked by a positive largest Lyapunov exponent and a Pearson correlation coefficient close to one. At the boundary of this regime, the Pearson coefficient varies abruptly, marking a crossover between staggered and uniform z -magnetization. To address finite-size quantum dynamics, we employ a quantum-trajectory approach and study the trajectory-resolved expectations of subsystem z -magnetizations. Their histograms over time and trajectory realizations exhibit maxima that undergo a staggered-to-uniform crossover analogous to the classical one. In analogy with the classical case, we interpret this behavior as quantum chaotic synchronization, with dissipative quantum chaos highlighted by the steady-state density matrix exhibiting Gaussian unitary ensemble statistics. The classical and quantum crossover points are different due to the noncommutativity of the infinite-time and infinite-spin-magnitude limits and the role played by entanglement in the quantum case, quantified via the two-subsystem entanglement entropy.
We consider an infinite-range interacting quantum spin-1/2 model, undergoing periodic kicking and dissipatively coupled with an environment. In the thermodynamic limit, it is described by classical mean-field equations that can show regular and chaotic regimes. At finite size, we describe the system dynamics using stochastic quantum trajectories. We find that the asymptotic nonstabilizerness (alias the m a g i c , a measure of quantum complexity), averaged over trajectories, mirrors to some extent the classical chaotic behavior, while the entanglement entropy has no relation with chaos in the thermodynamic limit.
Quantum chaos, a phenomenon that began to be studied in the last century, still does not have a rigorous understanding. By virtue of the correspondence principle, the properties of the system that lead to chaotic dynamics at the classical level must also be present in the underlying quantum system. In the classical case, the exponential divergence of nearby trajectories in time is described in terms of the Lyapunov exponent. However, in the quantum case, a similar description of chaos is, strictly speaking, impossible due to the absence of trajectories. There are different approaches to remedy this situation, but the universal criterion of quantum chaos is absent. We propose a quantum chaos definition in a manner similar to the classical one using decoherent histories as a quantum analog of trajectories. For this purpose, we consider the model of an open quantum kicked top interacting with the environment, which is a bosonic bath, and illustrate this idea. Here, the environment plays the role of a trajectory-recording device. For the kicked-top model at the classical level, depending on the kick strength, crossover occurs between the integrable and chaotic regimes. We show that for such a model, the production of entropy of decoherent histories is radically different in integrable and chaotic regimes. Thus, the entropy of an ensemble of quantum trajectories can be used as a signature of quantum chaos.
Two approaches to quantum-classical correspondence are distinguished according to the classical dynamical theory with which quantum theory is compared. The first of these, Ehrenfest correspondence, defines a dynamical regime in which the quantum expectation values follow approximately a classical trajectory. The second of these, Liouville correspondence, applies when the quantum probability distributions remain well approximated by a density in the classical phase space. The former applies only for narrow states, whereas the latter may remain valid even for quantum states that have spread to the system size. A spin model is adopted for this correspondence study because the quantum state is discrete and finite- dimensional, and thus no artificial truncation of the Hilbert space is required. The quantum time-evolution is given by a discrete unitary mapping. The corresponding classical model is volume-preserving (non-dissipative) and the time-evolution is given by a symplectic map. In classically chaotic regimes, the widths of initially narrow quantum states grow, on average, exponentially with time, until saturation at the system size. This initial spreading rate is well approximated by the classical Lyapunov exponent when the accessible classical phase space is predominantly chaotic. Because of the exponential growth rate of the quantum variance, the Ehrenfest regime is delimited by a break-time that grows logarithmically with increasing quantum numbers. The small differences between quantum expectation values and corresponding Liouville averages of dynamical variables also grow exponentially, initially, if the classical behaviour is chaotic. This exponential rate is independent of h and consistently larger than the classical Lyapunov exponent by at least a factor of two. Interestingly, this exponential growth rate does not continue until these differences approach magnitudes of order the system size, but crosses over to power-law growth (or simply saturates), when the differences have reached magnitudes no larger than order ħ. Because of the exponential growth of these quantum-classical differences, the Liouville regime is also delimited by a break-time that grows logarithmically with increasing quantum numbers. However, due to the early saturation of the exponential growth of the differences, the Liouville log break-time applies only in a restricted domain. After spreading to the system size, the quantum states relax to an approximately time-independent state. This is characterised by equilibrium distributions that are subject to rapidly oscillating fluctuations about the coarse-grained classical steady-state. If the accessible classical phase space is predominantly chaotic, then the equilibrium quantum probability distributions are nearly microcanonical. Otherwise the steady-state quantum probability distributions accurately reflect the details of the KAM surfaces in the classical phase space. The equilibrium regime quantum fluctuations, which are quantum-classical differences, are shown to approach zero as a negative power of the quantum numbers. Since the differences between quantum expectation values and individual classical trajectories grow exponentially in time to a magnitude that scales with the system size, the Ehrenfest regime is delimited by an unrestricted log break-time. The log break-time may be short compared to experimental time-scales for some chaotic macroscopic bodies, and, as a result, an observable breakdown of Ehrenfest correspondence may arise for some macroscopic systems. Although the Liouville regime is also delimited by a log break-time, an observable breakdown of correspondence between quantum mechanics and Liouville mechanics for macroscopic bodies is not likely since their differences, expressed relative to the dimensions of the observable, approach zero in the limit of large quantum numbers.
Quantum systems, when interacting with their environments, may exhibit nonequilibrium states that are tempting to be interpreted as quantum analogs of chaotic attractors. However, different from the Hamiltonian case, the toolbox for quantifying dissipative quantum chaos remains limited. In particular, quantum generalizations of Lyapunov exponents, the main quantifiers of classical chaos, are established only within the framework of continuous measurements. We propose an alternative generalization based on the unraveling of quantum master equation into an ensemble of "quantum trajectories," by using the so-called Monte Carlo wave-function method. We illustrate the idea with a periodically modulated open quantum dimer and demonstrate that the transition to quantum chaos matches the period-doubling route to chaos in the corresponding mean-field system.
We study a periodically driven macrospin system with anisotropic long-range interactions and collective dissipation, described by a Lindblad master equation. In the thermodynamic limit (N→∞), a mean-field treatment yields classical equations of motion, whose dynamics are characterized via the maximal Lyapunov exponent (MLE). Focusing on the thermodynamic limit, we map out chaotic, quasiperiodic, and periodic phases via bifurcation diagrams, MLEs, and Fourier spectra of evolved observables, identifying classic period-doubling bifurcations and fractal boundaries in the regions of attractors. Finite-size quantum simulations in the Dicke basis reveal that while both quantum and classical systems exhibit diverse dynamical phases, finite-size effects suppress some behaviors present in the thermodynamic limit. The sign of λmax serves as a key indicator of convergence between quantum and classical dynamics, which agree over timescales up to the Lyapunov time. Analysis of the density matrix shows that convergence occurs only when its nonzero elements are sharply localized. However, the nonconvergence does not imply a fundamental difference between quantum and classical dynamics: in chaotic regimes, although the evolution orbits of quantum and classical systems show significant differences, quantum evolution becomes mixed and diffusively explores the Hilbert space, signaling quantum chaos, which can be confirmed by the delocalized nature of the density matrix.
We study synchronization between periodically driven, interacting classical spins undergoing a Hamiltonian dynamics. In the thermodynamic limit there is a transition between a regime where all the spins oscillate synchronously for an infinite time with a period twice the driving period (synchronized regime) and a regime where the oscillations die after a finite transient (chaotic regime). We emphasize the peculiarity of our result, having been synchronization observed so far only in driven-dissipative systems. We discuss how our findings can be interpreted as a period-doubling time crystal and we show that synchronization can appear both for an overall regular and overall chaotic dynamics.