Harmonic oscillator kicked by spin measurements: a Floquet-like system without classical analogous

Abstract

We present a kicked harmonic oscillator where the impulsive driving is provided by stroboscopic measurements on an ancillary degree of freedom and not by the canonical quantization of a time-dependent Hamiltonian. The ancila is dynamically entangled with the oscillator position, while the background Hamiltonian remains static. The dynamics of this system is determined in closed analytical form, allowing for the evaluation of a properly defined Loschmidt echo, ensemble averages, and phase-space portraits. As in the case of standard Floquet systems we observe regimes with crystalline and quasicrystalline structures in phase space, resonances, and evidences of chaotic behavior, however, not originating from any classically chaotic system.