Relaxation oscillations and frequency entrainment in quantum mechanics

Abstract

Frequency entrainment of continuous-variable oscillators has to date been restrained to the weakly nonlinear regime. Here we overcome this bottleneck and extend frequency entrainment of quantum continuous-variable oscillators to arbitrary nonlinearities. The previously known steady state of such quantum oscillators in the weakly nonlinear regime (also known as a Stuart-Landau oscillator) is shown to emerge as a special case. Most importantly, the hallmark of strong nonlinearity--relaxation oscillations--is shown in quantum mechanics. Depending on the oscillator's nonlinearity, relaxation oscillations are found to occur via two distinct mechanisms in phase space.