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arXiv:quant-ph/0105086 · Physical Review A

δ -function-kicked rotor: Momentum diffusion and the quantum-classical boundary

Tanmoy Bhattacharya A, Salman Habib, Kurt A. Jacobs, Kosuke Shizume

Published Feb 20, 2002• 12 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We investigate the quantum-classical transition in the $\ensuremath{\delta}$-function-kicked rotor and the attainment of the classical limit in terms of measurement-induced state localization. It is possible to study the transition by fixing the environmentally induced disturbance at a sufficiently small value, and examining the dynamics as the system is made more macroscopic. When the system action is relatively small, the dynamics is quantum mechanical and when the system action is sufficiently large there is a transition to classical behavior. The dynamics of the rotor in the region of transition, characterized by the late-time momentum diffusion coefficient, can be strikingly different from both the purely quantum and classical results. Remarkably, the early-time diffusive behavior of the quantum system, even when different from its classical counterpart, is stabilized by the continuous measurement process. This shows that such measurements can succeed in extracting essentially quantum effects. The transition regime studied in this paper is accessible in ongoing experiments.

DOI
10.1103/physreva.65.032115

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We investigate the quantum-classical transition in the \ensuremathδ\ensuremath{\delta}\ensuremathδ-function-kicked rotor and the attainment of the classical limit in terms of measurement-induced state localization. It is possible to study the transition by fixing the environmentally induced disturbance at a sufficiently small value, and examining the dynamics as the system is made more macroscopic. When the system action is relatively small, the dynamics is quantum mechanical and when the system action is sufficiently large there is a transition to classical behavior. The dynamics of the rotor in the region of transition, characterized by the late-time momentum diffusion coefficient, can be strikingly different from both the purely quantum and classical results. Remarkably, the early-time diffusive behavior of the quantum system, even when different from its classical counterpart, is stabilized by the continuous measurement process. This shows that such measurements can succeed in extracting essentially quantum effects. The transition regime studied in this paper is accessible in ongoing experiments.
We investigate analytically and numerically early-time momentum diffusion rates for the delta-kicked rotor across the quantum to classical transition, i.e., as increased total system action produces more macroscopic dynamics. For sufficiently narrow initial momentum distributions we find a rich structure of resonances in these diffusion rates as a function of the effective Planck's constant. Our study is set in the physical context of the atom optics kicked rotor, and numerical simulations confirm that the resonances persist with kicks of finite duration and with other typical experimental imperfections, such as spontaneous emission noise. Our results should be testable in experiments where narrow initial momentum distributions are prepared using, for example, velocity selective Raman transitions or Bose-Einstein condensates.
The de Broglie-Bohm (BB) approach to quantum mechanics gives trajectories similar to classical trajectories except that they are also determined by a quantum potential. The quantum potential is a "fictitious potential" in the sense that it is part of the quantum kinetic energy. We use quantum trajectories to treat quantum chaos in a manner similar to classical chaos. For the kicked rotor, which is a bounded system, we use the Benettin et al. method to calculate both classical and quantum Lyapunov exponents as a function of control parameter K and find chaos in both cases. Within the chaotic sea we find in both cases nonchaotic stability regions for K equal to multiples of π. For even multiples of π the stability regions are associated with classical accelerator mode islands and for odd multiples of π they are associated with new oscillator modes. We examine the structure of these regions. Momentum diffusion of the quantum kicked rotor is studied with both BB and standard quantum mechanics (SQM). A general analytical expression is given for the momentum diffusion at quantum resonance of both BB and SQM. We obtain agreement between the two approaches in numerical experiments. For the case of nonresonance the quantum potential is not zero and must be included as part of the quantum kinetic energy for agreement. The numerical data for momentum diffusion of classical kicked rotor is well fit by a power law DNβ in the number of kicks N. In the anomalous momentum diffusion regions due to accelerator modes the exponent β(K) is slightly less than quadratic, except for a slight dip, in agreement with an upper bound (K2/2)N2. The corresponding coefficient D(K) in these regions has three distinct sections, most likely due to accelerator modes with period greater than one. We also show that the local Lyapunov exponent of the classical kicked rotor has a plateau for a duration that depends on the initial separation and then decreases asymptotically as O(t-1lnt), where t is the time. This behavior is consistent with an upper bound that is determined analytically.
We discuss the roles of the macroscopic limit and different system-environment interactions in a quantum-classical transition for a chaotic system. We consider the kicked harmonic oscillator subject to reservoirs that correspond in the classical case to purely dissipative or purely diffusive behavior, a situation that can be implemented in ion trap experiments. In the dissipative case, we derive an expression for the time at which quantum and classical predictions become different (breaking time) and show that complete quantum-classical correspondence is not possible in the chaotic regime. For the diffusive environment we estimate the minimum value of the diffusion coefficient necessary to retrieve the classical limit and also show numerical evidence that, for diffusion below this threshold, the breaking time behaves, essentially, like that in the case of a system without a reservoir.
We investigate the quantum-classical transition of a kicked rotor (KR) under perturbation by a second one. The influence of such a chaotic KR makes decoherence of the first one, resulting in the emergence of classical diffusion from its quantum dynamics. Such quantum-classical transition persists by decreasing the effective Planck's constant ℏ, and at the same time, decreasing the mass of the second KR and the interaction strength proportionally. In the limit of ħ → 0, due to vanishing small mass and interaction, the second KR has almost no effect on the classical dynamics of the first one. We demonstrate this via two different coupling potentials.
We present detailed observations of the quantum delta-kicked rotor in the vicinity of a quantum resonance. Our experiment consists of an ensemble of cold cesium atoms subject to a pulsed off-resonant standing wave of light. We measure the mean energy and show clearly that at the quantum resonance it is a local maximum. We also examine the effect of noise on the system and find that the greatest sensitivity to this occurs at the resonances. This makes these regions ideal for examining quantum-classical correspondence. A picture based on diffraction is developed which allows the experiments to be readily understood.
We numerically investigate momentum diffusion rates for the pulse kicked rotor across the quantum to classical transition as the dynamics are made more macroscopic by increasing the total system action. For initial and late time rates we observe an enhanced diffusion peak which shifts and scales with changing kick strength, and we also observe distinctive peaks around quantum resonances. Our investigations take place in the context of a system of ultracold atoms which is coupled to its environment via spontaneous emission decoherence, and the effects should be realizable in ongoing experiments.