Breakdown of quantum-classical correspondence is studied on an experimentally realizable example of a one-dimensional periodically driven system. Two relevant time scales are identified in this system: the short Ehrenfest time ${t}_{\ensuremath{\Elzxh}}\ensuremath{\sim}\mathrm{ln}({\ensuremath{\Elzxh}}^{\ensuremath{-}1})$ and the typically much longer localization time scale ${T}_{L}\ensuremath{\sim}{\ensuremath{\Elzxh}}^{\ensuremath{-}2}.$ It is shown that surprisingly weak modification of the Hamiltonian may eliminate the more dramatic symptoms of localization without effecting the more subtle but ubiquitous and rapid loss of correspondence at ${t}_{\ensuremath{\Elzxh}}.$
Breakdown of quantum-classical correspondence is studied on an experimentally realizable example of a one-dimensional periodically driven system. Two relevant time scales are identified in this system: the short Ehrenfest time t\ensuremath\Elzxh\ensuremath∼ln(\ensuremath\Elzxh\ensuremath−1) and the typically much longer localization time scale TL\ensuremath∼\ensuremath\Elzxh\ensuremath−2. It is shown that surprisingly weak modification of the Hamiltonian may eliminate the more dramatic symptoms of localization without effecting the more subtle but ubiquitous and rapid loss of correspondence at t\ensuremath\Elzxh.
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.
The threshold for quantum-classical correspondence is D∼ℏ34
In chaotic quantum systems, an initially localized quantum state can deviate strongly from the corresponding classical phase-space distribution after the Ehrenfest time tE∼log(ℏ−1), even in the limit ℏ→0. Decoherence by the environment is often invoked to explain the persistence of the quantum-classical correspondence at longer timescales. Recent rigorous results for Lindblad dynamics with phase-space diffusion strength D show that quantum and classical evolutions remain close for times that are exponentially longer than the Ehrenfest time whenever D≫ℏ34, in units set by the classical Hamiltonian. At the same time, some heuristic arguments have suggested the weaker condition D≫ℏ2 always suffices. Here we construct an explicit Lindbladian that demonstrates that the scaling D∼ℏ34 is indeed the threshold for quantum-classical correspondence beyond the Ehrenfest time. Our example uses a smooth time-dependent Hamiltonian and linear Lindblad operators generating homogeneous isotropic diffusion. It exhibits an ℏ-independent quantum-classical discrepancy at the Ehrenfest time whenever D≪ℏ34, even for ℏ-independent "macroscopic" smooth observables.
The quantum dynamics of a classically chaotic model are studied in the approach to the macroscopic limit. The quantum predictions are compared and contrasted with the classical predictions of both Newtonian and Liouville mechanics. The time-domain scaling of the optimal quantum-classical correspondence is analyzed in detail in the case of both classical theories. In both cases the correspondence for observable quantities is shown to break down on a time-scale that increases very slowly (logarithmically) with increasing system size. In the case of quantum-Liouville correspondence such a short time-scale does not imply a breakdown of correspondence since the largest quantum-Liouville differences reached on this time-scale decrease rapidly (as an inverse power) with increasing system size. Therefore the statistical properties of chaotic dynamics are, as expected, well described by quantum theory in the macroscopic limit. In contrast, the largest quantum-Newtonian differences reached on the log time-scale actually increase in proportion to the system size. Since the invariance properties of the Hamiltonian impose functional constraints on the time-varying chaotic coordinates, it is possible to show, moreover, that if the quantum predictions are believed to describe the coordinates of individual chaotic systems, then they also predict macroscopic violations of any kinematic or dynamic constants of the motion. These results for chaotic systems indicate that a valid description of the time-varying properties of individual macroscopic bodies is not available within the standard interpretive framework of quantum theory.
Recently, the phenomenon of quantum-classical correspondence breakdown was uncovered in optomechanics, where in the classical regime the system exhibits chaos but in the corresponding quantum regime the motion is regular - there appears to be no signature of classical chaos whatsoever in the corresponding quantum system, generating a paradox. We find that transient chaos, besides being a physically meaningful phenomenon by itself, provides a resolution. Using the method of quantum state diffusion to simulate the system dynamics subject to continuous homodyne detection, we uncover transient chaos associated with quantum trajectories. The transient behavior is consistent with chaos in the classical limit, while the long term evolution of the quantum system is regular. Transient chaos thus serves as a bridge for the quantum-classical transition (QCT). Strikingly, as the system transitions from the quantum to the classical regime, the average chaotic transient lifetime increases dramatically (faster than the Ehrenfest time characterizing the QCT for isolated quantum systems). We develop a physical theory to explain the scaling law.
We describe the quantum-mechanical spreading of a Gaussian wave packet by means of the semiclassical WKB approximation of Berry and Balazs [J. Phys. A 2, 625 (1979)]. We find that the time scale $\ensuremath{\tau}$ on which this approximation breaks down in a chaotic system is larger than the Ehrenfest times considered previously. In one dimension $\ensuremath{\tau}=\frac{7}{6}{\ensuremath{\lambda}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\mathrm{ln}(A/\ensuremath{\Elzxh}),$ with $\ensuremath{\lambda}$ the Lyapunov exponent and A a typical classical action.
We study the open system dynamics of a circuit quantum electrodynamics (QED) model operating in the ultrastrong coupling regime. If the resonator is pumped periodically in time the underlying classical system is chaotic. Indeed, the periodically driven Jaynes-Cummings model in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation resembles a Duffing oscillator which in the classical limit is a well-known example of a chaotic system. Detection of the field quadrature of the output field acts as an effective position measurement of the oscillator. We address how such detection affects the quantum chaotic evolution in this bipartite system. We differentiate between single measurement realizations and ensembles of repeated measurements. In the former case a measurement/decoherence induced localization effect is encountered, while in the latter this localization is almost completely absent. This is in marked contrast to numerous earlier works discussing the quantum-classical correspondence in measured chaotic systems. This lack of a classical correspondence under relatively strong measurement induced decoherence is attributed to the inherent quantum nature of the qubit subsystem and in particular to the quantum correlations between the qubit and the field which persist despite the decoherence.