Genuine Quantum Chaos and Physical Distance Between Quantum States

Abstract

We show that there is genuine quantum chaos despite that quantum dynamics is linear. This is revealed by introducing a physical distance between two quantum states. Qualitatively different from existing distances for quantum states, for example, the Fubini-Study distance, the physical distance between two mutually orthogonal quantum states can be very small. As a result, two quantum states, which are initially very close by physical distance, can diverge from each other during the ensuing quantum dynamical evolution. We are able to use physical distance to define quantum Lyaponov exponent and quantum chaos measure. The latter leads to quantum analogue of the classical Poincar\'e section, which maps out the regions where quantum dynamics is regular and the regions where quantum dynamics is chaotic. Three different systems, kicked rotor, three-site Bose-Hubbard model, and spin-1/2 XXZ model, are used to illustrate our results.