A semiclassical study of quantum maps

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:7042427

Guo, Y

The study of the behavior of quantum systems whose classical limit exhibits chaos defines the problem of quantum chaos. One would naturally ask how quantum mechanics approaches the classical limit [h bar] = 0, and how the chaotic motion in classical systems manifests itself in the corresponding quantum counterparts. Semiclassical mechanics is the bridge between quantum mechanics and classical mechanics. For studying the quantum mechanics corresponding to generic classical motion it is desirable to use the simplest possible model. The model system the authors use is the kicked rotator. Detailed computations of both classical and quantum mechanics are feasible for this system. The relationship between invariant classical phase space structures and quantum eigenfunctions has been the focus of recent semiclassical studies. The authors study the eigenstates of the quantum standard map associated with both integrable and non-integrable regions in classical phase space. The coherent-state representation is used to make the correspondence between the quantum eigenstates and the classical phase space structure. The importance of periodic orbits in the quantum eigenstates of classically chaotic Hamiltonians has become a popular topic in study of semiclassical limits of the systems. Periodic orbits arise without any assumption in the trace formula developed by Gutzwiller. The authors calculate the semiclassical coherent-state propagator. Since computing all the complex stationary orbits is not practical, the authors make a further assumption which the authors call the periodic point dominance (PPD). The authors present arguments and evidence to show that the PPD approximation works well in hard chaos regions where the full semiclassical approximation is not practical to use. The method fails in some boundary regions where both stable and unstable points are present, but the full semiclassical approximation is not a much better method than the PPD in many situations.

• Research Organization: Maryland Univ., College Park, MD (United States)
• OSTI ID: 7042427
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

661100* -- Classical & Quantum Mechanics-- (1992-)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CLASSICAL MECHANICS
EIGENSTATES
MAPPING
MATHEMATICAL SPACE
MECHANICS
PHASE SPACE
QUANTUM MECHANICS
RANDOMNESS
SEMICLASSICAL APPROXIMATION
SPACE