Quantum chaos with graphs: a silicon photonics plateform

Abstract

We provide a versatile plateform to investigate wave-particle duality. This photonic waveguide network implements quantum (wave) graphs as proposed in the seminal paper by Kottos \& Smilansky [PRL \textbf{85} 968 (2000)]. We experimentally demonstrated that the spectral statistics of a mixing (i.e. strongly chaotic) graph follows the predictions of random matrix theory, contrary to an ergodic (i.e. less chaotic) graph, in agreement with the Bohigas-Giannoni-Schmit conjecture [PRL \textbf{52} 1 (1984)]. This plateform also gives access to the wavefunction patterns, which are expected to verify the quantum ergodicity theorem.