Long-lived Quantum Coherence between Macroscopically Distinct States in Superradiance

The dephasing influence of a dissipative environment reduces linear superpositions of macroscopically distinct quantum states (sometimes also called Schr\"odinger cat states) usually almost immediately to a statistical mixture. This process is called decoherence. Couplings to the environment with a certain symmetry can lead to slow decoherence. In this Letter we show that the collective coupling of a large number of two-level atoms to an electromagnetic field mode in a cavity that leads to the phenomena of superradiance has such a symmetry, at least approximately. We construct superpositions of macroscopically distinct quantum states decohering only on a classical time scale and propose an experiment in which the extraordinarily slow decoherence should be observable.Comment: 4 pages of revte

Entanglement in the classical limit: quantum correlations from classical probabilities

We investigate entanglement for a composite closed system endowed with a scaling property allowing to keep the dynamics invariant while the effective Planck constant hbar_eff of the system is varied. Entanglement increases as hbar_eff goes to 0. Moreover for sufficiently low hbar_eff the evolution of the quantum correlations, encapsulated for example in the quantum discord, can be obtained from the mutual information of the corresponding \emph{classical} system. We show this behavior is due to the local suppression of path interferences in the interaction that generates the entanglement. This behavior should be generic for quantum systems in the classical limit.Comment: 10 pages 3 figure

Classical versus Quantum Time Evolution of Densities at Limited Phase-Space Resolution

We study the interrelations between the classical (Frobenius-Perron) and the quantum (Husimi) propagator for phase-space (quasi-)probability densities in a Hamiltonian system displaying a mix of regular and chaotic behavior. We focus on common resonances of these operators which we determine by blurring phase-space resolution. We demonstrate that classical and quantum time evolution look alike if observed with a resolution much coarser than a Planck cell and explain how this similarity arises for the propagators as well as their spectra. The indistinguishability of blurred quantum and classical evolution implies that classical resonances can conveniently be determined from quantum mechanics and in turn become effective for decay rates of quantum correlations.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure

Fluctuations and Ergodicity of the Form Factor of Quantum Propagators and Random Unitary Matrices

We consider the spectral form factor of random unitary matrices as well as of Floquet matrices of kicked tops. For a typical matrix the time dependence of the form factor looks erratic; only after a local time average over a suitably large time window does a systematic time dependence become manifest. For matrices drawn from the circular unitary ensemble we prove ergodicity: In the limits of large matrix dimension and large time window the local time average has vanishingly small ensemble fluctuations and may be identified with the ensemble average. By numerically diagonalizing Floquet matrices of kicked tops with a globally chaotic classical limit we find the same ergodicity. As a byproduct we find that the traces of random matrices from the circular ensembles behave very much like independent Gaussian random numbers. Again, Floquet matrices of chaotic tops share that universal behavior. It becomes clear that the form factor of chaotic dynamical systems can be fully faithful to random-matrix theory, not only in its locally time-averaged systematic time dependence but also in its fluctuations.Comment: 12 pages, RevTEX, 4 figures in eps forma

Semiclassics for a Dissipative Quantum Map

We present a semiclassical analysis for a dissipative quantum map with an area-nonpreserving classical limit. We show that in the limit of Planck's constant to 0 the trace of an arbitrary natural power of the propagator is dominated by contributions from periodic orbits of the corresponding classical dissipative motion. We derive trace formulae of the Gutzwiller type for such quantum maps. In comparison to Tabor's formula for area-preserving maps, both classical action and stability prefactor are modified by the dissipation. We evaluate the traces explicitly in the case of a dissipative kicked top with integrable classical motion and find good agreement with numerical results.Comment: 22 pages of revtex, 5 ps figures. Replaced with version accepted by Physica D. Minor misprints corrected and some notations simplifie

Stringent Numerical Test of the Poisson Distribution for Finite Quantum Integrable Hamiltonians

Using a new class of exactly solvable models based on the pairing interaction, we show that it is possible to construct integrable Hamiltonians with a Wigner distribution of nearest neighbor level spacings. However, these Hamiltonians involve many-body interactions and the addition of a small integrable perturbation very quickly leads the system to a Poisson distribution. Besides this exceptional cases, we show that the accumulated distribution of an ensemble of random integrable two-body pairing hamiltonians is in perfect agreement with the Poisson limit. These numerical results for quantum integrable Hamiltonians provide a further empirical confirmation to the work of the Berry and Tabor in the semiclassical limit.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX (RevTeX 4) Content changed, References added Accepted for publication in PR

Long-time fidelity and chaos for a kicked nonlinear oscillator system

We deal with a system comprising a nonlinear (Kerr-like) oscillator excited by a series of ultra-short external pulses. We introduce the fidelity-based entropic parameter that can be used as an indicator of quantum chaos. Moreover, we propose to use the fidelity-like parameter comprising the information about the mean number of photons in the system. We shall concentrate on the long-time behaviour of the parameters discussed, showing that for deep chaos cases the quantum fidelities behave chaotically in the classical sense despite their strictly quantum character.Comment: 20 pages including 8 figure

Truncations of Random Orthogonal Matrices

Statistical properties of non--symmetric real random matrices of size $M$, obtained as truncations of random orthogonal $N\times N$ matrices are investigated. We derive an exact formula for the density of eigenvalues which consists of two components: finite fraction of eigenvalues are real, while the remaining part of the spectrum is located inside the unit disk symmetrically with respect to the real axis. In the case of strong non--orthogonality, $M/N=$const, the behavior typical to real Ginibre ensemble is found. In the case $M=N-L$ with fixed $L$, a universal distribution of resonance widths is recovered.Comment: 4 pages, final revised version (one reference added, minor changes in Introduction