The quantum dynamics of a coherently driven nonlinear oscillator are studied by solving the Schrödinger equation numerically. The results are used to examine the effect of increasingly strong driving on the mean number, squeezing, the second-order correlation function and the general behaviour of the Q function. For comparison, the corresponding quantities for the classical Liouville dynamics are also computed. It is found that while the dynamics do maintain some quantum aspects as the strength of the driving is increased, the spectacular quantum features of the undriven nonlinear oscillator are in fact progressively lost.
The quantum dynamics of a coherently driven nonlinear oscillator are studied by solving the Schrödinger equation numerically. The results are used to examine the effect of increasingly strong driving on the mean number, squeezing, the second-order correlation function and the general behaviour of the Q function. For comparison, the corresponding quantities for the classical Liouville dynamics are also computed. It is found that while the dynamics do maintain some quantum aspects as the strength of the driving is increased, the spectacular quantum features of the undriven nonlinear oscillator are in fact progressively lost.
Parametrically driven Kerr nonlinear quantum oscillator plays a central role in quantum optics, superconducting circuits, and in engineered light-matter interactions. For the development of future quantum technologies, it is crucial to understand the behavior of this quantum system under realistic dissipative conditions. The objective of this thesis is to investigate the phase-space dynamics of a dissipative Kerr nonlinear oscillator under different driving regimes and corresponding dissipation channels, with a particular focus on the emergence of nonclassical features in phase space. The aim is also to understand how nonlinearity and different driving mechanisms influence quantum properties such as coherence, nonclassicality, and phase-space structure. The analysis was carried out using the Wigner phase-space formalism and numerical simulations of the Lindblad master equation. The results show that in the case of finite nonlinearity the coherence time is prolonged compared to the harmonic case. In the single photon regime, the interplay between the photon drive and nonlinearity can lead to coherence revivals after which the system relaxes into a squeezed steady state. In the two photon and dissipation regime, the system exhibits parity-protected dynamics, leading to very long coherence times.
The introduction of nonlinearities in the Schrödinger equation has been considered in the literature as an effective manner to describe the action of external environments or mean fields. Here, in particular, we explore the nonlinear effects induced by subtracting a term proportional to Bohm’s quantum potential to the usual (linear) Schrödinger equation, which generates the so-called “classical” Schrödinger equation. Although a simple nonlinear transformation allows us to recover the well-known classical Hamilton–Jacobi equation, by combining a series of analytical results (in the limiting cases) and simulations (whenever the analytical treatment is unaffordable), we find an analytical explanation to why the dynamics in the nonlinear “classical” regime is still strongly nonclassical. This is even more evident by establishing a one-to-one comparison between the Bohmian trajectories associated with the corresponding wave function and the classical trajectories that one should obtain. Based on these observations, it is clear that the transition to a fully classical regime requires extra conditions in order to remove any trace of coherence, which is the truly distinctive trait of quantum mechanics. This behavior is investigated in three paradigmatic cases, namely, the dispersion of a free propagating localized particle, the harmonic oscillator, and a simplified version of Young’s two-slit experiment.
In this thesis we investigate two different aspects of nonlinear dynamical behaviour: First, we study quantum synchronization which is based on nonlinear, so-called limit-cycle oscillators. Second, we investigate the influence of nonlinear interactions on topological transport in bosonic systems. We begin with the investigation of the synchronization of two optomechanical systems in the presence of quantum noise. With numerical simulations of the full quantum and a semiclassical model, we identify different phase synchronization regimes, although exact phase locking is prevented due to the inevitable quantum noise. Our main results are noise-induced transitions between different synchronization states, as well as noise-induced bistability, i.e., the appearance of a second synchronization state in the quantumregime, even if in the classical, noiseless limit only a single stable synchronization state exists. We give an overview about the classical-to-quantumtransition and also compare our findings to synchronization in the presence of classical, thermal noise. Subsequently, we study the quantum synchronization dynamics of a quantum Van der Pol oscillator coupled to an external periodic driving. This paradigm system for limit-cycle oscillators allows us to derive an effective, analytical quantum model and identify the different dynamical regimes, like overdamped, underdamped, and notably also quantum-coherent phase motion. We explore the distinct signatures of these different dynamical regimes, e.g., in the spectrum or the squeezing. Moreover, we show that in the remarkable regime of quantum-coherent phase dynamics quantum states with negative Wigner densities (like Schrödinger cat states) are preserved for many oscillations of the system. Our effective model gives insight into how to achieve quantum coherence in synchronization dynamics, while numerical simulations of the full model confirm the predicted behaviour. Finally, we turn to the classical dynamics of a Chern topological insulator in a nonlinear bosonic system. To this end, we study the half Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang model on a square lattice in the presence of a local Kerr nonlinearity. We investigate the stability of a linear edge state in the nonlinear model and present a linear stability analysis to gain insight into the unstable scattering processes enabled by the nonlinearity. In a time evolution of the full nonlinear model, we can show that these processes lead to a spatially periodic modulation of the edge channel on an intermediate timescale. However, eventually we observe that strong nonlinear processes lead to more complicated behaviour and a significant radiation into the bulk.
Quantum oscillators with nonlinear driving and dissipative terms have gained significant attention due to their ability to stabilize cat states for universal quantum computation. Recently, superconducting circuits have been employed to realize such long-lived qubits stored in coherent states. We present a generalization of these oscillators, which are not limited to coherent states. The key ingredient lies in the presence of different nonlinearities in driving and dissipation, beyond the quadratic one. Through an extensive analysis of the asymptotic dynamical features for different nonlinearities, we identify the conditions for the storage and retrieval of quantum states, such as squeezed states, in both coherent and incoherent superpositions. We explore their applications in quantum computing, where squeezing prolongs the lifetime of memory storage for qubits encoded in the superposition of two symmetric squeezed states, and in quantum associative memory, which has so far been limited to the storage of classical patterns.
We investigate spin squeezing, quantum entanglement, and second-order coherence in two coupled, driven, dissipative, nonlinear cavities. We compare these quantum statistical properties for the cavities coupled with either single- or two-photon exchange. Solving the quantum optical master equation of the system numerically in the steady state, we calculate the zero-time delay second-order correlation function for the coherent, genuine two-mode entanglement parameters, an optimal spin squeezing inequality associated with particle entanglement, concurrence, quantum entropy, and logarithmic negativity. We identify regimes of distinct quantum statistical character depending on the relative strength of photon exchange and nonlinearity. Moreover, we examine the effects of weak and strong drives on these quantum statistical regimes.