Nonequilibrium chaos of disordered nonlinear waves

TL;DR

This paper investigates the persistence of chaos in disordered nonlinear waves, showing that chaotic dynamics continue to drive wave packet spreading and delocalization over long timescales.

Contribution

It provides a quantitative analysis of chaos indicators in nonlinear disordered systems, confirming that nonequilibrium chaos sustains delocalization.

Findings

Chaotic dynamics slow down but do not cease over observed timescales.

Chaotic spots meander through the system, maintaining phase decoherence.

Chaos persists sufficiently to enable wave packet thermalization.

Abstract

Do nonlinear waves destroy Anderson localization? Computational and experimental studies yield subdiffusive nonequilibrium wave packet spreading. Chaotic dynamics and phase decoherence assumptions are used for explaining the data. We perform a quantitative analysis of the nonequilibrium chaos assumption, and compute the time dependence of main chaos indicators - Lyapunov exponents and deviation vector distributions. We find a slowing down of chaotic dynamics, which does not cross over into regular dynamics up to the largest observed time scales, still being fast enough to allow for a thermalization of the spreading wave packet. Strongly localized chaotic spots meander through the system as time evolves. Our findings confirm for the first time that nonequilibrium chaos and phase decoherence persist, fueling the prediction of a complete delocalization.