Decoherence without classicality in the resonant quantum kicked rotor

TL;DR

This paper investigates how certain types of quantum decoherence affect the resonant quantum kicked rotor, revealing that some quantum features persist despite decoherence, challenging the classical-quantum transition understanding.

Contribution

It provides exact analytical solutions for primary resonances and numerical analysis for secondary resonances, showing decoherence does not necessarily induce classical diffusive behavior.

Findings

Variance maintains ballistic growth under Kraus operator decoherence

Coherence decays as a power law in primary resonances

Secondary resonances exhibit exponential coherence decay

Abstract

We study the quantum kicked rotor in resonance subjected to an unitary noise defined through Kraus operators, we show that this type of decoherence does not, in general, lead to the classical diffusive behavior. We find exact analytical expressions for the density matrix and the variance in the primary resonances. The variance does not loose its ballistic behavior, however the coherence decays as a power law. The secondary resonances are treated numerically, obtaining a power-law decay for the variance and an exponential law decay for the coherence.