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P. Lecheminant
To cite this version:
P. Lecheminant. Semiclassical limit and quantum chaos. Journal de Physique I, EDP Sciences, 1993,
3 (2), pp.299-309. �10.1051/jp1:1993131�. �jpa-00246723�
J. Phys. I France 3
(1993)
299- 309 FEBRUARY 1993, PAGE 299Classification Physics Abstracts
03.65N 03.80 05.45
Sendclassical findt and quantum chaos
P. Lecheminant
Laboratoire de Physique Thdorique des
Liquides,(°)
Universitd Pierre et Marie Curie, 4 place Jussieu 75252 Paris Cedex 05 France(Received
20 May 1992, accepted 25 June 1992)Rdsumd. Dans cet article, nous prdsentons le domaine
sur lequel R. Rammal travaillait dans les demiers moments de sa vie le chaos quantique. Nous dtudions numdriquement le
comportement de plusieurs distributions pour des bfllards avec ou sans champ magndtique. Nous trouvons des lois exponentielles pour la distribution des longueurs des trajectoires, pour celle de la surface balayde par la particule et ainsi que pour la distribution du nombre de r4flections
sur les parois du billard. Ces rdsultats confortent l'hypothbse que la signature de la diffusion classiquement chaotique dans le domaine quantique est l'apparition de fluctuations de la matrice S
(on
de conductance pour des conducteursballistiques)
dans la limite semiclassique.Abstract. In this paper
we present the field on which R. Rammal was working in the last
moments of his life : quantum chaos. The behavior of various distributions is investigated nu-
merically for different planar billiards in presence of a magnetic field or not. We find exponential laws for the distributions of the trajectory lengths, of the algebraic areas, and of the number of boundary reflections. These results support the conjecture that the signature of the classical chaotic scattering in the quantum description is the appearance of fluctuations of the S-matrix
(or
conductance for ballisticconductors)
in the semiclassical limit.1. Introduction.
The
discovery
of chaotic behavior in deterministicdynamical
systems has had amajor
effectin many areas of
physics iii.
Chaos means anexponential sensitivity
to initial conditions in abounded
region
which leads tostretching
andfolding
in classical phase space.Quantum
chaos has been defined as thestudy
of quantum systems, whose classical counterpartsdisplay
chaoticbehavior,
in the semiclassical limit(h
-0)
[2]. It has stimulated many efforts to understandmore
deeply
the connection between classical and quantum theoriesill.
Forintegrable
systelus, thiscorrespondence
is madethrough
the Einstein-Brillouin-Kellerquantization
conditions for(°) Unit6 de Recherche Assoc14e au CNRS.(URA 76s)
classical invariant
tori[3].
Gutzwiller andBalian-Bloch,
havedeveloped
a semiclassicaltheory,
the swcalled
periodic-orbit theory,
to understand quantum systems whose classical behavior ischaotic[4].
In thistheory,
the link between classical and quantum mechanics stems fromclassical
periodic
orbits and can be writtensymbolically
[3] as~(quantal energies)n_o~- ~j (classical periodic orbits). (1)
Gutzwiller
Ill
has noticed that this formula agrees with theSelberg
Trace formula for the motion of aparticle
on a compact surface of constantnegative
curvature. This semiclassicalapproach
allows thestudy
of quantum spectra for chaotic systems where the absence of invariant tori rules out the Einstein-Brillouin-Kellerquantization.
As a consequence, there is now strong evidence that the statisticalproperties
of the semiclassical spectrum of bound systems with achaotic classical limit are very similar to those of random matrix ensembles in nuclear
physics
[5].Classically,
chaotic systems have levels with a strong localrepulsion
describedby
anappropriate
member of the random matrixtheory. By using
theperiodic-orbit theory, Berry
has found that someparticular
statistics(spectral rigidity
or the numbervariance), characterizing
the fluctuations of excited energy
levels,
can be described in terms of threeuniversality
classes [6].In a series of papers in collaboration with Bellissard [7], R. Rammal has derived a semiclassical
approach
of the energy levels for Bloch electrons in amagnetic
field. Eversince,
R. Rarrtmal has been very attractedby
the methodsdeveloped
forstudying
quantumchaos,
with the ideathat this
flourishing
field couldbring
newperspectives
in many areas ofphysics.
For
instance, according
tohim,
quantum chaos could have some connections withstrongly
correlated systems,
especially
thehigh
temperaturesuperconductors
and the quantum Hall effect [8].Despite
agreat
deal of effort and some progress, new methods are stilllacking
fora better
understanding
of thesephenomena.
In myopinion,
R. Rammalthought
that nearthe supra
region,
where there are many excited energylevels,
thestudy
of spectra and levels statistics shouldprovide
newinsight
into thehigh
temperaturesuperconductivity.
Anotherexample
of thisimplication
is the Wannier-Azbel-Hofstadterproblem, namely
theproperties
of a quantum fractal [9] : the energy spectrum as a function of
magnetic
field has a Cantor set structure. Since these Cantor sets may beinterpreted
as chaoticrepellers
orsemiattractors,
the
investigation
of R. Rammal in relation with quantum chaos would havebeen, undoubtedly,
fruitful.
Besides,
he studied the quantumscattering
of aparticle
in lD and 2Dquasicrystal
[10] structures. He found energy levels with a local attraction instead of a usualrepulsion
forchaotic systems
ii Ii.
This work has had consequences inmagnetism (Kondo problem) ill]
but also for thestudy
of conductance fluctuationsill].
The aim of this paper is to present the field in which R. Rammal wasworking
in the last moments of his lifebut,
aboveall,
I would like to thank him and pay him tribute forintroducing
me inphysics
research on quantum chaos.2. Chadtic
scattering.
Recent studies of quantum chaos have
paid
attention to unboundedscattering problems
[12].These appear in a
large variety
of fields such as inelasticscattering
in atomic and molecular systems or ballistic conductors. Thesignature
of chaos in these open systems isquite
subtle since thedynamics
is not confined to a finite volume ofphase
spacethus,
thefolding
isby
no means obvious. In the most common view, a system
displays
classical chaoticscattering
ifthe variation of the parameters
specifying
the outcome of the collision(such
as thescattering
angle)
occurs on all scales of theincoming
parameters. Thescattering
S-matrix is the relevantN°2 SEMICLASSICAL LIMIT AND QUANTUM CHAOS 301
concept for a
complete
quantumdescription
of the process. It is aunitary
operator, due to fluxconservation,
and issymmetric
for systems with time-reversal syrrtmetry. The crucialpoint
for
understanding
theimplication
of classical chaoticscattering
in the quantum domain is the semiclassicalapproximation
for the S-matrix [13]. Bliimel andSmilansky
[14] have shown thata manifestation of quantum chaos in
scattering
is the presence of fluctuations of the S matrixequal
to thosepredicted by
random matrixtheory.
Moreprecisely,
the semiclassical derivation of the energy correlation iscan,(e)
=<sj~,(E)sun,(E
+ e) >=can'(.°), (2)
1-
j
where
Cnn,(e)
isaveraged
over an energy domain AE which isspecified
below. Thisequation
was derived
through
two main stepsLet
ST
be the set of initial conditions such that aparticle spends
a timeexceeding
T in the interactionregion.
The measure p of this set is thenP(ST)
*exP(-7T), (3)
where 7 is the classical escape rate. In the T - oo
limit, ST
is a fractal set and 7 is connected to theLyapunov
exponentI,
whichgives
an estimate of theexponential stretching along
theunstable
direction, by
7 =
1(1 d), (4)
where d is the Hausdorff dimension of the fractal [12].
It is assumed that 7 is
independent
of n andn',
and its variations with energy areneglected
in the interval AE. This small energy domain AE has to be chosen such that
emq < AE < e~j,
(5)
where e~j and emq denote
,
respectively,
the classical and quantum energy scales.It follows from
equation(2)
that the fluctuations of the crosssection,
for agiven transition,
are describedby
a Lorentzian:
<
'nn'(El'nn'(E
+ £) >"~
~~~'~fi~/ (6)
~
(j)
This law was obtained
by
Ericson [15] inhigh-energy
nuclear collisions. This should have consequences in the transportproperties
of smallphase-coherent
conductors sincethey
arecompletely
determined in terms of the S-matrix forindependent
electrons at the Fermi energy.Accordingly,
2D ballistic conductors may exhibit resistance fluctuations due to theunderlying
classical
scattering.
In thesesamples,
where thetypical
features are much smaller than theelastic,
orinelastic, scattering length,
electrons behave like waves or billiard balls. At very low temperatures(<
4K)
and at lowmagnetic field,
avariety
ofmagnetoresistance
anomaliesappears in such
junctions.
It was shown [16] that the Kubo formula for the conductance is~2
~ h ~~~~~~~' ~~~
where i is the transmission matrix and i+ denotes its
adjoint.
In this case, the energy correlation function is derived fromequation(2)
[17]C(Ak)
=<6g(k
+Ak)6g(k)
>=~(~~
(8)
+
())~
~
A
~
~
~
RR
~
~
A
~
~ ~
~2~ ~~~
~ ~
Fig.I.
The different billiards studied in this work,a)
The open-stadium system,b)
The elbow system, c) The cross system.d)
The Bunimovich stadium,e)
The four-disk structure,f)
General billiard whose corners verify thefollowing
law: xP+yP
= cst.
Jalabert et al.
ii?]
also obtained a semiclassical derivation of themagnetic-field
correlation functionC(AB)
=<6g(B
+AB)6g(B)
>=~j~(
,
(9) (1+ (~)~)~
o
with lo " ~~
(flux quantum);
a isobtained,
like 7, from the classical chaoticscattering.
Thee
main
assumption
for thevalidity
ofequation(9)
is that the distribution of areas isgiven by
thefollowing
law :N(Q)
=N(0) exP(-alai), (lo)
where Q denotes the
algebraic
area enclosedby
the electron's orbit.Therefore,
the character- istic scales of the conductancefluctuations,
as well as those of theS-matrix,
are related to theunderlying
classical chaoticscattering.
3. Nwnerical results.
To check the
validity
of the aboveconclusion, namely
the connection between the characteristic scales of fluctuations and the classical parameters a and 7(see Eqs.(8, 9)),
we have calculated these parameters defined inequations(3)
and(10)
for the billiardsdepicted
infigure
I. We choose several types of billiards to measure the effect of symmetry reduction on a and 7. For instance, the last billiard infigure
I illustrates the influence of therounding
of the corners(~P+yP
=
cst).
Westudy
first the oval billiard in order to test ourapproach,
but also for itsgeneric
behavior.Indeed,
this billiard leads to motion for which thephase
space is formedby
chaotic areasintricately
mixed with areas covered with invariant curves. On the contrary,No2 SEMICLASSICAI, LIMIT AND QUANTUAI CIiAOS 303
1
,.
,"'~_
,_= ~, ~'_
.~
j'~.(
0.B I-1-"' "'II ,' ." ) '' .'',, '."'' .j
.- ,., ; [ .i,, =.
:> :
I "'., ,". .I ."'1
"_
$'
0. 6 ', ,-.' .,' ,t [
",~'
[=:i." )( ',' ,,." [...,
0 4 " .~j.'.)~. ~,j
.. )~"
~ '/[[?
.~ .,;,',_. ;,
j"~ )"l,
0.2 ~' "' ..'
.,_,,
; ',,.,l' "~, ~~l' .;( ~
'),'. ,'ll.
'I" '.1" .'
P 0 ..;.. ..:-'
_I
,j'
I,"."
-0.2 '"
~"
;~;:" ~ ,f..' ," "~l'~
"" ):
.. ,'[ ',' ,')
j'
-0.4 "/. "_' (" I.,I' ~. ''',
", (_ fl'
'.' :,' ...[/..
_,~: _.
.' "..
.j, j. ,', ' ", ') .[
.. ','
-0. 6 '~,""
;_ '~.. [
-0. 8
["'
''"'"
'
,: .C.[-
= .- .= ""
-1
0 1 2 3
~ 4 5 6 7
Fig.2.
The phase space struture of the oval bdliard(obtained
by a deformation of acircle);
S and P denote, respectively, the arc length and the tangential momemtum 10' bouncesare required.
1
o 5
,
~
~ /
.l' '~
l'
___~.
'~' 'i'",,,
Y 0
, ' / ,,--~'~~
',
"' ''j
", , ' '
, '
, , /
, '
, ; ,'
-0 5
', 1'
,, ' .'
'~~L -I'
, I
j,
?'
,i '
-i -o.5 o o.5 1
x
Fig.3.
Typical classical trajectory in the four-disk structure.12
~',
10
',
~ ',
, ,
~ ',
8
, ,
~ ',
,
, b,
~" ~ 6
',
, b,
, ,
, bs
4
, ,
, ,
o, ,
,
, o
,
2
',
,
, o
,
, ',
, ,
),~~~
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
L
FigA.
The distribution of trajectory lengths for the elbow system. A = 0.5 m, R= 0.478
m
(values
bom Doron et al. 's experiments [19]). We find 7
" 0.0956 m~~
12
~ ,,
10
~,
,~,
',
*,
8
'h~
, ,
» ',
'Q
LnN 6 ',
~,
'~
, ',
4 b
',
, ,
o, ',o
,
2 ',
~N ',
~,
, , 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
L
Fig.5.
The distribution of trajectorylengths
for the four-disk structure. A= 0.5 m, R
= i m. 7
= o.385 m~~
N°2 SEMICLASSICAL LIMIT AND QUANTUM CHAOS 305
11
',
~°
'b,
, h~
,
~ 'b
', lK
8
',
~ ',
~,
7
',
L»N
~,
, b,
6
',
d~ ',
,
5
°',
~o',
,
~
4
', bs
,~l~
3
',o
,
',~~
2
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
L
Fig.6.
The distribution of trajectory lengths for the four-disk structure in a magnetic field. A=
0.5 m, R
= i m; for a cyclotron radius Rc = 3 m, 7 " 0.01 m~~
12
10
~
? ',
/ «
4 ,
' b
8 '~ 'b
~d '
~f ~,
,d ~,
~f ~l
Ln N 6
/ '~
A~ ,
~ ~
'
~i
j ,
~' b,
4 ' Q
6 ,
,' ~
~~ ,~
,6 ',
, §
2 'O
~ o
/ '
1 '
' ' / 0
-1000 -800 -600 -400 -200 0 200 400 600 800
S
Fig.?.
The distribution of effective areas for theopen-stadium
system. A = 4 m, R= 4 m, W
=
I m
(width
between the twoprobes).
txi = 0.0099 m~~(for
Q < 0), 02 " 0.016 m~~(for
Q > 0).12
io
~K
~,
~~S
8 ~,
~i~
~,~
~°~
L~iN 6 ~'o~
~,~
,~
~, )'o~
4 ~,
~,
i~,
,°~S°
2
"~°
', o
~, °
~,
',,
o
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Nr
Fig.8.
The distribution of the number of boundary reflections for the open-stadium structure A=
4 m, R
= 4 m, W
= i m
(width
between the twoprobes)
Rc= 5 m; 71 = 0.072. This distribution is defined by :
P(N)
=
P(0) exp(-71N)
for the Bunimovich stadium [18], almost all orbits
explore
thephase
spaceuniformly (ergodic billiard)
whereas forellipses
the motion isentirely
confined to invariant curves(integrable
bil-liard). Figure
2emphasizes
the richness of the orbital structure for oval billiard(10~ bounces).
We simulate the
injection
of alarge
number(typically
10~) ofparticles
towards thescattering region
and follow theirtrajectories (straight
lines or arcs of circledepending
on the presence ofa
magnetic
field ornot)
todetermine,
forinstance,
thetrajectory length
before it scatters out.Then,
weadjust
anexponential
law on thehistogram describing
theappropriate
distributionso as to evaluate the value of the classical parameter. Because
elasticity
of collisionimplies
conservation of energy and hence of
speed,
we normalize thespeed
of thescattering particle
to one.
Figure
3 shows atypical trajectory
for the four-disk system(18 bounces).
When amagnetic
field B(constant, uniform,
andperpendicular
to theplane
of thebilliard)
isapplied,
a
trajectory
is a succession of arcs of circle with reflections on the walls. The radius of the circles isgiven by (Larmor radius)
R =
§, (II)
q
where m,q, u are, the mass, the
charge,
and thevelocity
of theparticle, respectively.
pWe now
report
our main results. For the distribution oftrajectory lengths,
weobtain,
on the whole,exponential
laws. 'Vefind,
for instance, 7 ~M 0.096 m~~(see Fig. 4)
for the elbowstructure in agreement with Doron et al. [19]. We also observe that
equation(3)
is still valid in the presence of amagnetic
field andthat,
ingeneral,
7 seems to be reduced(see
the results for the four-disk structure inFigs.
5,6).
We calculated the distribution of elTective areasby
N°2 SEMICLASSICAL LIMIT AND QUANTUM CHAOS 307
11
~~
"'b
', h~
9 , ,
b ',
8
h~
, ,
~ ',
L,,N ~
~,
,
,o~,
~
'b ',
, o~
5
',
,o',
~
4
',
,
~ ,
,
3
~s
,
~%l
,
'f~~~~
2
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Nr
Fig-g-
The distribution of the number of boundary reflections for the elbow system A= 0.5 m, R
= 0.478 m; 71
= 0.016.
evaluating
the oriented area enclosedby
the electronpath
:
Q =
f(dr
Ar),k, (12)
where k is a unit vector
along
B. We assumed that it is agood approximation
fortypical
openorbits. We obtain that Q has an
approximately symmetric exponential
law for the open stadium structure and very weak fields(see Fig. 7).
If R is less than thetypical
linear dimension of thejunction,
thepredictions
ofequation(10)
are not satisfied. We have also calculated thisdistribution for a
particle displaying
a Brownian motion. We find thefollowing
law :P(S, t)
=
) ~
~ ,
(13)
cosh
(fl§)
where i is the number of steps necessary for the
particle
to return near theorigin
of themovement. This result is
explicitly
known for a wavepropagating
in a random medium in twodimensions where D is the diffusion constant [20].
Finally,
we mention the distribution of the number ofboundary
reflections.Figures
8, 9 show that the distribution follows anexponential
law for chaotic billiards whether a
magnetic
field isapplied
or not.Unfortunately,
we do not know of anyquantity
for which the characteristic scale of its fluctuations is connected to thereflection number in the semiclassical limit.
4. Conclusion and
perspectives.
In this
work,
we have verified that the fluctuations of the S-matrix or of conductance are related in the semiclassical limit to theunderlying
classical chaoticscattering.
Inparticular,
we havechecked
numerically
that theexponential
laws areaccurately reproduced
for the distribution oftrajectory lengths (or areas).
We stress that theexpression
for themagnetic-field
correla~tion function is
only
valid when the Larmor radius is muchlarger
than the device dimensions(namely,
at lowmagnetic field).
Due to Rammal'sdeath,
many of our results have not beenexploited.
For instance we have not studied in asystematic
way the influence of the symme- try reduction on the classical parameters.Besides,
the fluctuations of the S-matrix under amagnetic
field are very relevantsince,
for a time-reversalbreaking
system, one should observea transition between members of the random matrix theory.
Finally,
the dilTerent correla- tion functions for our billiards could be calculateddirectly by
the recursive Green's function method.Therefore,
this threefoldcomparison
betweenclassical, semiclassical,
and quantumtheory
shouldprovide
the main characteristic features of the classical chaoticscattering
in thequantum domain.
Acknowledgements.
I would like to thank the Centre de Recherches sur les Tr+s Basses
Tempdratures (CRTBT)
where this work was
performed.
Igratefully acknowledge
J.C.Anglbs d'Auriac,
B.Dougot,
T.
Dombre,
M. Azzouz and Y. Brechet for many useful discussions. Ispecially
thank J-M-Maillard,
D. Delande, G.Tarjus,
P. Viot, B. Bemu, C.Lhuillier,
P. Azaria and H. Azzouz for theirhelp.
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