Quantum Chaos: Reduced Density Matrix Fluctuations in Coupled Systems

Abstract

Following a recent work (briefly reviewed below) we consider temporal fluctuations in the reduced density matrix elements for a coupled system involving a pair of kicked rotors as also one made up of a pair of Harper Hamiltonians. These dynamical fluctuations are found to constitute a reliable indicator of the degree of chaos in the quantum dynamics, and are related to stationary features like the eigenvalue and eigenvector distributions of the system under consideration. A brief comparison is made with the evolution of the reduced distribution function in the classical phase space.