Power-law behavior in the quantum-resonant evolution of the delta-kicked accelerator
Abstract
We consider the atom-optical delta-kicked accelerator when the initial momentum distribution is symmetric. We demonstrate the existence of quantum-resonant dynamics, and derive analytic expressions for the system evolution. In particular, we consider the dynamical evolution of the momentum moments and find that all even-ordered momentum moments exhibit a power law growth. In the ultracold (zero-temperature) limit the exponent is determined by the order of the moment, whereas for a broad, thermal initial momentum distribution the exponent is reduced by one. To demonstrate the power law behavior explicitly we consider the evolutions of the second- and fourth-order momentum moments, and cumulants, for an initially Gaussian momentum distribution corresponding to the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution of an ideal gas at thermal equilibrium.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0807.2587,
title = {Power-law behavior in the quantum-resonant evolution of the delta-kicked accelerator},
author = {P. L. Halkyard and M. Saunders and S. A. Gardiner and K. J. Challis},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0807.2587},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
15 pages, 4 figures (changed content)