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What We Talk About When We Talk About Dissipative Quantum Chaos

Quantum Physics 2026-05-22 v1 Statistical Mechanics Mathematical Physics math.MP Chaotic Dynamics

Abstract

Dissipative quantum chaos is an emerging theory that is expected to extend the ideas, concepts, and methodology of conventional Hamiltonian quantum chaos from coherent evolution to open quantum dynamics. The new theory should provide a set of tools to distinguish chaotic open quantum systems from integrable ones, as well as quantitative measures of their chaoticity (or, conversely, integrability). The foundations of this theory were laid in the late 1980s, and from the very start it was clear that, like its Hamiltonian predecessor, it had to be based on the spectral properties of the operators governing open quantum evolution. After these first steps, the field remained relatively quiet for many years and it is only over the last decade that the development of dissipative quantum chaos has received a strong boost, as confirmed by a large number of publications on this topic and, very recently, the first experiments performed to test its theoretical predictions. In this chapter, we review these recent developments and outline the basic foundations of dissipative quantum chaos.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.21628,
  title  = {What We Talk About When We Talk About Dissipative Quantum Chaos},
  author = {Lucas Sá and Pedro Ribeiro and Sergey Denisov},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.21628},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Chapter for the Quantum Chaos volume in 'Comprehensive Quantum Mechanics', to be published by Elsevier (Main editor: R.B. Mann; volume editors: S. Gnutzmann and K. {\.Z}yczkowski). 26 pages, 10 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-22T07:24:47.383Z