Abstract
Accessing the connection between classical chaos and quantum many-body systems has been a long-standing experimental challenge. Here, we investigate the onset of chaos in periodically driven two-component Bose-Einstein condensates, whose small quantum uncertainties allow for exploring the phase space with high resolution. By analyzing the uncertainties of time-evolved many-body states, we find signatures of elliptic and hyperbolic periodic orbits generated according to the Poincaré-Birkhoff theorem, and the formation of a chaotic region at increasing driving strengths. The employed fluctuation analysis allows for probing the phase-space structure by use of only short-time quantum dynamics.
- Received 25 August 2015
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.95.011602
©2017 American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
Synopsis
Chaos from a Chilled Cloud of Atoms
Published 12 January 2017
A map of chaos emerging in a Bose-Einstein condensate provides a rare glimpse of the behavior in a system of many quantum particles.
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