Dynamics of Loschmidt echoes and fidelity decay

Quantum states extended over a large volume in phase space have oscillations from quantum interferences in their Wigner distribution on scales smaller than $\hbar$ [W.H. Zurek, Nature {\bf 412}, 712 (2001)]. We investigate the influence of those sub-Planck scale structures on the sensitivity to an external perturbation of the state's time evolution. While we do find an accelerated decay of the Loschmidt Echo for an extended state in comparison to a localized wavepacket, the a...

In this paper we perform an exact study of ``Quantum Fidelity'' (also called Loschmidt Echo) for the time-periodic quantum Harmonic Oscillator of Hamiltonian : $$ \hat H\_{g}(t):=\frac{P^2}{2}+ f(t)\frac{Q^2}{2}+\frac{g^2}{Q^2} $$ when compared with the quantum evolution induced by $\hat H\_{0}(t)$ ($g=0$), in the case where $f$ is a $T$-periodic function and $g$ a real constant. The reference (initial) state is taken to be an arbitrary ``generalized coherent state'' in the s...

The Loschmidt Echo M(t) (defined as the squared overlap of wave packets evolving with two slightly different Hamiltonians) is a measure of quantum reversibility. We investigate its behavior for classically quasi-integrable systems. A dominant regime emerges where M(t) ~ t^{-alpha} with alpha=3d/2 depending solely on the dimension d of the system. This power law decay is faster than the result ~ t^{-d} for the decay of classical phase space densities.

This paper presents a unified semiclassical framework for five regimes of quantum fidelity decay and conjectures a new universal regime. The theory is based solely on the statistics of actions in the dephasing representation. Counterintuitively, in this representation, all of the decay is due to interference and none due to the decay of classical overlaps. Both rigorous and numerical support of the theory is provided.

The Loschmidt echo (LE) is a purely quantum-mechanical quantity whose determination for large quantum many-body systems requires an exceptionally precise knowledge of all eigenstates and eigenenergies. One might therefore be tempted to dismiss the applicability of any approximations to the underlying time evolution as hopeless. However, using the fully connected transverse-field Ising model (FC-TFIM) as an example, we show that this indeed is not the case, and that a simple s...

General semiclassical expression for quantum fidelity (Loschmidt echo) of arbitrary pure and mixed states is derived. It expresses fidelity as an interference sum of dephasing trajectories weighed by the Wigner function of the initial state, and does not require that the initial state be localized in position or momentum. This general dephasing representation is special in that, counterintuitively, all of fidelity decay is due to dephasing and none due to the decay of classic...

We investigate the sensitivity of a disordered system with diffractive scatterers to a weak external perturbation. Specifically, we calculate the fidelity M(t) (also called the Loschmidt echo) characterizing a return probability after a propagation for a time $t$ followed by a backward propagation governed by a slightly perturbed Hamiltonian. For short-range scatterers we perform a diagrammatic calculation showing that the fidelity decays first exponentially according to the ...

The overlap of two wave functions evolving in time with slightly different Hamiltonians decays exponentially, for perturbation strengths greater than the level spacing. We present numerical evidence for a dynamical system that the decay rate is given by the smallest of the Lyapunov exponent of the classical chaotic dynamics and the level broadening that follows from the golden rule of quantum mechanics. This limits the range of validity for the perturbation-strength independe...

The Quantum Loschmidt Echo is a measurement of the sensitivity of a quantum system to perturbations of the Hamiltonian. In the case of the standard 2-torus, we derive some explicit formulae for this quantity in the transition regime where it is expected to decay in the semiclassical limit. The expression involves both a two-microlocal defect measure of the initial data and the form of the perturbation. As an application, we exhibit a non-concentration criterium on the sequenc...

General theoretic approach to classical Loschmidt echoes in chaotic systems with many degrees of freedom is developed. For perturbations which affect essentially all degrees of freedom we find a doubly exponential decay with the rate determined by the largest Lyapunov exponent. The scaling of the decay rate on the perturbation strength depends on whether the initial phase-space density is continuous or not.