arXiv subjects

R. A. Kidd

Publications and source records attributed to R. A. Kidd.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2021

Saddle-point scrambling without thermalisation

Out-of-time-order correlators (OTOCs) have proven to be a useful tool for studying thermalisation in quantum systems. In particular, the exponential growth of OTOCS, or scrambling, is sometimes taken as an indicator of chaos in quantum systems, despite the fact that saddle points in integrable systems can also drive rapid growth in OTOCs. By analysing the Dicke model and a driven Bose-Hubbard dimer, we demonstrate that the OTOC growth driven by chaos can, nonetheless, be distinguished from that driven by saddle points through the long-term behaviour. Besides quantitative differences in the long-term average, the saddle point gives rise to large oscillations not observed in the chaotic case. The differences are also highlighted by entanglement entropy, which in the chaotic driven dimer matches a Page curve prediction. These results illustrate additional markers that can be used to distinguish chaotic behaviour in quantum systems, beyond the initial exponential growth in OTOCs.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Quantum chaos in a Bose-Hubbard dimer with modulated tunnelling

In the large-$N$, classical limit, the Bose-Hubbard dimer undergoes a transition to chaos when its tunnelling rate is modulated in time. We use exact and approximate numerical simulations to determine the features of the dynamically evolving state that are correlated with the presence of chaos in the classical limit. We propose the statistical distance between initially similar number distributions as a reliable measure to distinguish regular from chaotic behaviour in the quantum dynamics. Besides being experimentally accessible, number distributions can be efficiently reconstructed numerically from binned phase-space trajectories in a truncated Wigner approximation. Although the evolving Wigner function becomes very irregular in the chaotic regions, the truncated Wigner method is nevertheless able to capture accurately the beyond mean-field dynamics.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2017

Finite-time Lyapunov exponents in chaotic Bose-Hubbard chains

Many-site Bose-Hubbard lattices display complex semiclassical dynamics, with both chaotic and regular features. We have characterised chaos in the semiclassical dynamics of short Bose-Hubbard chains using both stroboscopic phase space projections and finite-time Lyapunov exponents. We found that chaos was present for intermediate collisional nonlinearity in the open trimer and quatramer systems, with soft chaos and Kolmogoroff-Arnold-Moser islands evident. We have found that the finite-time Lyapunov exponents are consistent with stroboscopic maps for the prediction of chaos in these small systems. This gives us confidence that the finite-time Lyapunov exponents will be a useful tool for the characterisation of chaos in larger systems, where meaningful phase-space projections are not possible and the dimensionality of the problem can make the standard methods intractable.

nlin.CD↗