Semiquantum Chaos in the Double-Well

Abstract

The new phenomenon of semiquantum chaos is analyzed in a classically regular double-well oscillator model. Here it arises from a doubling of the number of effectively classical degrees of freedom, which are nonlinearly coupled in a Gaussian variational approximation (TDHF) to full quantum mechanics. The resulting first-order nondissipative autonomous flow system shows energy dependent transitions between regular behavior and semiquantum chaos, which we monitor by Poincaré sections and a suitable frequency correlation function related to the density matrix. We discuss the general importance of this new form of deterministic chaos and point out the necessity to study open (dissipative) quantum systems, in order to observe it experimentally.

LaTeX, 25 pages plus 7 postscript figures. Replaced figure 3 with a non-bitmapped version

References in corpus (5)

• Classical Equations for Quantum Systems
• Decoherence, Chaos, and the Second Law
• Semiquantal dynamics of fluctuations: Ostensible quantum chaos
• Semi-Quantum Chaos
• Quantum Decoherence, Entropy and Thermalization in Strong Interactions at High Energy

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Chaos in Time Dependent Variational Approximations to Quantum Dynamics
• Chaos in effective classical and quantum dynamics
• Validity of the time-dependent variational approximation to the Gaussian wavepacket method applied to double-well systems
• Quantum chaos and Hénon-Heiles model: Dirac's variational approach with Jackiw-Kerman function