Topological phase transition in chaotic optomechanical systems

Hidden structures with well-defined predictability are uncovered in the evolution of a chaotic optomechanical system from the perspective of the $\epsilon$-machine. Tuning the frequency of the driving laser can switch off this predictability, and such behaviour corresponds to a phase transition that is deeply related to topological changes in phase space. The transition probabilities between causal states allow us to define an entropy (uncertainty) that serves as an effective order parameter. This phase transition can be readily demonstrated in currently available experiments by monitoring the quadrature of the optical mode. We hope that this work could fundamentally broaden the regimes of cavity micromechanics and nonlinear optics.