Sensitivity to perturbations in a quantum chaotic billiard

Abstract

The Loschmidt echo (LE) measures the ability of a system to return to the initial state after a forward quantum evolution followed by a backward perturbed one. It has been conjectured that the echo of a classically chaotic system decays exponentially, with a decay rate given by the minimum between the width $\Gamma$ of the local density of states and the Lyapunov exponent. As the perturbation strength is increased one obtains a cross-over between both regimes. These predictions are based on situations where the Fermi Golden Rule (FGR) is valid. By considering a paradigmatic fully chaotic system, the Bunimovich stadium billiard, with a perturbation in a regime for which the FGR manifestly does not work, we find a cross over from $\Gamma$ to Lyapunov decay. We find that, challenging the analytic interpretation, these conjetures are valid even beyond the expected range.