Classical and Quantum Chaotic Behaviors of Two Colliding Harmonic Oscillators

Abstract

We have systematically studied both classical and quantum chaotic behaviors of two colliding harmonic oscillators. The classical case falls in Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser class. It is shown that there exists an energy threshold, above which the system becomes nonintegrable. For some values of the initial energy near the threshold, we have found that the ratio of frequencies of the two oscillators affects the Poincaré sections significantly. The largest Lyapunov character exponent depends linearly on the ratio of frequencies of the two oscillators away from the energy threshold in some chaotic regions, which shows that the chaotic behaviors of the system are mainly determined by the ratio. In the quantum case, for certain parameters, the distribution of the energy level spacings also varies with the ratio of frequencies of the two oscillators. The relation between the energy spectra and the ratio of frequencies of the two oscillators, the interaction constant, and the semi-classical quantization constant, is also investigated respectively.