Semiclassical dynamics in the strongly chaotic regime: Breaking the log time barrier (Q1186940)

The behavior of the quantum baker's transformation (map) is investigated. The classical analogue of this system is completely chaotic. The classical analogue of this system is completely chaotic. It is shown that a semiclassical theory can accurately reproduce many features of the quantum evolution of a wave packet in a strongly mixing time regime. The aspects of the classical baker's map are briefly summarized. In particular, it is shown how the exact classical mechanics can be completely organized in terms of periodic orbits and their linearizable regimes. Then, the quantum baker's map and a short time semiclassical approximation based on a wave packet dynamics is combined with the classical image for describing nonlinearities. Finally, the theory is tested using the autocorrelation function for an initially circular wave packet. The calculations were taken on a scale smaller than Planck's constant, i.e., past the log time \(t^*\sim\ln\hslash^{-1}\).