Coexistence of order and chaos at critical points of first-order quantum phase transitions in nuclei

TL;DR

This paper investigates how order and chaos coexist at the critical point of first-order quantum phase transitions in nuclei, revealing regular behavior in deformed phases and chaos in spherical phases through classical and quantum analyses.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the coexistence of order and chaos at quantum phase transition critical points in the interacting boson model.

Findings

Deformed phase exhibits regular dynamics.

Spherical phase shows chaotic behavior.

Collective rotations influence the dynamics.

Abstract

We study the interplay between ordered and chaotic dynamics at the critical point of a generic first-order quantum phase transition in the interacting boson model of nuclei. Classical and quantum analyses reveal a distinct behavior of the coexisting phases. While the dynamics in the deformed phase is robustly regular, the spherical phase shows strongly chaotic behavior in the same energy intervals. The effect of collective rotations on the dynamics is investigated.