Condensed Matter Seminar Series

Title: Hunting Quantum Butterflies: Chaos as a Signature of Non-Monotonicity in the Transition from the Microscopic to the Macroscopic World

Arjendu Pattanayak

Carleton College

Thursday November 6,  11:00 am,  Room 298,  Physics Building

Abstract:  The classical-quantum transition for chaotic systems is understood to be accompanied by the suppression of chaotic effects as the relative \hbar is increased. I will talk about recent theoretical results showing evidence to the contrary in the behavior of the quantum trajectory dynamics of a dissipative quantum chaotic system, the double-well Duffing oscillator. The classical limit in the case considered has regular behavior, but as the effective \hbar is increased we see chaotic behavior. This chaos then disappears deeper into the quantum regime, which means that the quantum-classical transition in this case is non-monotonic in \hbar. I will also talk about prospects for observation of this effect in experiments with SQUIDs.