Highlights

Quantum Irreversibility (1999-2005)()

We introduce and analyze the physics of "driving reversal" experiments. These are prototype wavepacket dynamics scenarios probing quantum irreversibility. Unlike the mostly hypothetical "time reversal" concept, a "driving reversal" scenario can be realized in a laboratory experiment, and is relevant to the theory of quantum dissipation. We study both the energy spreading and the survival probability in such experiments. We also introduce and study the "compensation time" (time of maximum return) in such a scenario. Extensive effort is devoted to figuring out the capability of either Linear Response Theory (LRT) or Random Matrix Theory (RMT) in order to describe specific features of the time evolution. We explain that RMT modeling leads to a strong non-perturbative response effect that differs from the semiclassical behavior.

The figure above describes the time stages in the spreading of a wavpacket, depending on the strength ε of the perturbation (the initial wavepacket is an eigenstate of the unperturbed hamiltonian). On the left: the RMT scenario. On the right: the semiclassical scenario. We argue that the quantum diffusion in the RMT modeling has two stages: a reversible stage (up to tsdn) and an irreversible stage (up to tbrk).

[1] M. Hiller, D. Cohen, T. Geisel and T. Kottos, Annals of Physics 321, 1025 (2006). [arXiv] [pdf]
[2] T. Kottos and D. Cohen, Europhysics Letters 61, 431-437 (2003). [arXiv] [pdf]
[3] M. Hiller, T. Kottos, D. Cohen and T. Geisel, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 010402 (2004). [arXiv] [pdf]
[4] D. Cohen, F. Izrailev and T. Kottos, Phys. Rev. Lett. 84, 2052 (2000). [arXiv] [pdf]