Spectral Analysis of a Model for Quantum Friction

An otherwise free classical particle moving through an extended spatially homogeneous medium with which it may exchange energy and momentum will undergo a frictional drag force in the direction opposite to its velocity with a magnitude which is typically proportional to a power of its speed. We study here the quantum equivalent of a classical Hamiltonian model for this friction phenomenon that was proposed in [11]. More precisely, we study the spectral properties of the quantum Hamiltonian and compare the quantum and classical situations. Under suitable conditions on the infrared behaviour of the model, we prove that the Hamiltonian at fixed total momentum has no ground state except when the total momentum vanishes, and that its spectrum is otherwise absolutely continuous.Comment: 40 page

Dynamical mechanisms leading to equilibration in two-component gases

Demonstrating how microscopic dynamics cause large systems to approach thermal equilibrium remains an elusive, longstanding, and actively-pursued goal of statistical mechanics. We identify here a dynamical mechanism for thermalization in a general class of two-component dynamical Lorentz gases, and prove that each component, even when maintained in a non-equilibrium state itself, can drive the other to a thermal state with a well-defined effective temperature.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Dynamics of the mean-field interacting quantum kicked rotor

We study the dynamics of the many-body atomic kicked rotor with interactions at the mean-field level, governed by the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We show that dynamical localization is destroyed by the interaction, and replaced by a subdiffusive behavior. In contrast to results previously obtained from a simplified version of the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, the subdiffusive exponent does not appear to be universal. By studying the phase of the mean-field wave function, we propose a new approximation that describes correctly the dynamics at experimentally relevant times close to the start of subdiffusion, while preserving the reduced computational cost of the former approximation.Comment: v1) 5 pages, 4 figures; v2) 7 pages, 4 figure

Relating the Entanglement and Optical Nonclassicality of Multimode States of a Bosonic Quantum Field

The quantum nature of the state of a bosonic quantum field manifests itself in its entanglement, coherence, or optical nonclassicality which are each known to be resources for quantum computing or metrology. We provide quantitative and computable bounds relating entanglement measures with optical nonclassicality measures. These bounds imply that strongly entangled states must necessarily be strongly optically nonclassical. As an application, we infer strong bounds on the entanglement that can be produced with an optically nonclassical state impinging on a beam splitter. For Gaussian states, we analyze the link between the logarithmic negativity and a specific nonclassicality witness called "quadrature coherence scale".Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, change of notation in v

Quadrature coherence scale driven fast decoherence of bosonic quantum field states

International audienceWe introduce, for each state of a bosonic quantum field, its quadrature coherence scale (QCS), a measure of the range of its quadrature coherences. Under coupling to a thermal bath, the purity and QCS are shown to decrease on a time scale inversely proportional to the QCS squared. The states most fragile to decoherence are therefore those with quadrature coherences far from the diagonal. We further show a large QCS is difficult to measure since it induces small scale variations in the state's Wigner function. These two observations imply a large QCS constitutes a mark of "macroscopic coherence". Finally, we link the QCS to optical classicality: optical classical states have a small QCS and a large QCS implies strong optical nonclassicality

Characterizing the geometry of the Kirkwood-Dirac positive states

The Kirkwood-Dirac (KD) quasiprobability distribution can describe any quantum state with respect to the eigenbases of two observables $A$ and $B$. KD distributions behave similarly to classical joint probability distributions but can assume negative and nonreal values. In recent years, KD distributions have proven instrumental in mapping out nonclassical phenomena and quantum advantages. These quantum features have been connected to nonpositive entries of KD distributions. Consequently, it is important to understand the geometry of the KD-positive and -nonpositive states. Until now, there has been no thorough analysis of the KD positivity of mixed states. Here, we characterize how the full convex set of states with positive KD distributions depends on the eigenbases of $A$ and $B$. In particular, we identify three regimes where convex combinations of the eigenprojectors of $A$ and $B$ constitute the only KD-positive states: $(i)$ any system in dimension $2$; $(ii)$ an open and dense set of bases in dimension $3$; and $(iii)$ the discrete-Fourier-transform bases in prime dimension. Finally, we investigate if there can exist mixed KD-positive states that cannot be written as convex combinations of pure KD-positive states. We show that for some choices of observables $A$ and $B$ this phenomenon does indeed occur. We explicitly construct such states for a spin-$1$ system.Comment: 35 pages, 2 figure

Stability analysis of a Vlasov-Wave system describing particles interacting with their environment

International audienceWe study a kinetic equation of the Vlasov-Wave type, which arises in the description of the behaviour of a large number of particles interacting weakly with an environment, composed of an infinite collection of local vibrational degrees of freedom, modeled by wave equations. We use variational techniques to establish the existence of large families of stationary states for this system, and analyze their stability

Chaotic Dynamics of a Free Particle Interacting Linearly with a Harmonic Oscillator

We study the closed Hamiltonian dynamics of a free particle moving on a ring, over one section of which it interacts linearly with a single harmonic oscillator. On the basis of numerical and analytical evidence, we conjecture that at small positive energies the phase space of our model is completely chaotic except for a single region of complete integrability with a smooth sharp boundary showing no KAM-type structures of any kind. This results in the cleanest mixed phase space structure possible, in which motions in the integrable region and in the chaotic region are clearly separated and independent of one another. For certain system parameters, this mixed phase space structure can be tuned to make either of the two components disappear, leaving a completely integrable or completely chaotic phase space. For other values of the system parameters, additional structures appear, such as KAM-like elliptic islands, and one parameter families of parabolic periodic orbits embedded in the chaotic sea. The latter are analogous to bouncing ball orbits seen in the stadium billiard. The analytical part of our study proceeds from a geometric description of the dynamics, and shows it to be equivalent to a linked twist map on the union of two intersecting disks.Comment: 17 pages, 11 figures Typos corrected to display section label