Phys. Rev. A 63, 042101 (2001) [10 pages]

Quantum nonlinear dynamics of continuously measured systems

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A. J. Scott *
Department of Mathematics, The University of Queensland, Queensland 4072, Australia

G. J. Milburn
Department of Physics, The University of Queensland, Queensland 4072, Australia

Received 25 August 2000; published 7 March 2001

Classical dynamics is formulated as a Hamiltonian flow in phase space, while quantum mechanics is formulated as unitary dynamics in Hilbert space. These different formulations have made it difficult to directly compare quantum and classical nonlinear dynamics. Previous solutions have focused on computing quantities associated with a statistical ensemble such as variance or entropy. However a more direct comparison would compare classical predictions to the quantum predictions for continuous simultaneous measurement of position and momentum of a single system. In this paper we give a theory of such measurement and show that chaotic behavior in classical systems can be reproduced by continuously measured quantum systems.


©2001 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRA/v63/e042101
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.63.042101
PACS: 03.65.Ta, 05.45.Mt

* Electronic address: ajs@maths.uq.edu.au
Electronic address: milburn@physics.uq.edu.au

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