Semiclassical spectra without periodic orbits for a kicked top

Exposing hypersensitivity in quantum chaotic dynamics

We study hypersensitivity to initial-state perturbation in the unitary dynamics of a multiqubit system. We use the quantum state metric, introduced by Girolami and Anza [Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 170502 (2021)0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.126.170502], which can be interpreted as a quantum Hamming distance. To provide a proof of principle, we take the multiqubit implementation of the quantum kicked top, a paradigmatic system known to exhibit quantum chaotic behavior. Our findings confirm that the observed hypersensitivity corresponds to commonly used signatures of quantum chaos. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the proposed metric can detect quantum chaos in the same regime and under analogous initial conditions as in the corresponding classical case.

Quantum signatures of chaos, thermalization, and tunneling in the exactly solvable few-body kicked top

Exactly solvable models that exhibit quantum signatures of classical chaos are both rare as well as important-more so in view of the fact that the mechanisms for ergodic behavior and thermalization in isolated quantum systems and its connections to nonintegrability are under active investigation. In this work, we study quantum systems of few qubits collectively modeled as a kicked top, a textbook example of quantum chaos. In particular, we show that the three- and four-qubit cases are exactly solvable and yet, interestingly, can display signatures of ergodicity and thermalization. Deriving analytical expressions for entanglement entropy and concurrence, we see agreement in certain parameter regimes between long-time average values and ensemble averages of random states with permutation symmetry. Comparing with results using the data of a recent transmons-based experiment realizing the three-qubit case, we find agreement for short times, including a peculiar steplike behavior in correlations of some states. In the case of four qubits we point to a precursor of dynamical tunneling between what in the classical limit would be two stable islands. Numerical results for larger number of qubits show the emergence of the classical limit including signatures of a bifurcation.

Effective time-independent analysis for quantum kicked systems

We present a mapping of potentially chaotic time-dependent quantum kicked systems to an equivalent approximate effective time-independent scenario, whereby the system is rendered integrable. The time evolution is factorized into an initial kick, followed by an evolution dictated by a time-independent Hamiltonian and a final kick. This method is applied to the kicked top model. The effective time-independent Hamiltonian thus obtained does not suffer from spurious divergences encountered if the traditional Baker-Cambell-Hausdorff treatment is used. The quasienergy spectrum of the Floquet operator is found to be in excellent agreement with the energy levels of the effective Hamiltonian for a wide range of system parameters. The density of states for the effective system exhibits sharp peaklike features, pointing towards quantum criticality. The dynamics in the classical limit of the integrable effective Hamiltonian shows remarkable agreement with the nonintegrable map corresponding to the actual time-dependent system in the nonchaotic regime. This suggests that the effective Hamiltonian serves as a substitute for the actual system in the nonchaotic regime at both the quantum and classical level.

Quantum criticality and dynamical instability in the kicked-top model

We investigate precursors of critical behavior in the quasienergy spectrum due to the dynamical instability in the kicked top. Using a semiclassical approach, we analytically obtain a logarithmic divergence in the density of states, which is analogous to a continuous excited state quantum phase transition in undriven systems. We propose a protocol to observe the cusp behavior of the magnetization close to the critical quasienergy.

Periodic orbit basis for the quantum baker map

A set of quantum states, dynamically related to the classical periodic orbits of a chaotic map, is used as a basis in which the description of the eigenstates of its quantum version is greatly simplified. This set can be improved with the inclusion of short time propagation along the stable and unstable manifolds of the periodic orbits resulting in a construction similar to the scar functions of Vergini [J. Phys. A 33, 4709 (2000)]. The average participation ratio is used to quantify the quality of the basis.

Stochastic multiresonance in a chaotic map with fractal basins of attraction

Noise-free stochastic resonance in a chaotic kicked spin model at the edge of the attractor merging crisis is considered. The output signal reflects the occurrence of crisis-induced jumps between the two parts of the attractor. As the control parameter-the amplitude of the magnetic field pulses-is varied, the signal-to-noise ratio shows plateaus and multiple maxima, thus stochastic multiresonance is observed. It is shown that the multiresonance occurs due to a fractal structure of the precritical attractors and their basins. In the adiabatic approximation theoretical expression for the signal-to-noise ratio is derived, based on the theory of oscillations in average crisis-induced transient lifetimes. Numerical and theoretical results agree quantitatively just above the threshold for crisis and qualitatively in a wide range of the control parameter.