Superposed quantum evolutions across chaotic and regular regimes

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Anand, Amit, de la Hamette, Anne-Catherine, Mann, Robert, Ghose, Shohini
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
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author Anand, Amit
de la Hamette, Anne-Catherine
Mann, Robert
Ghose, Shohini
author_facet Anand, Amit
de la Hamette, Anne-Catherine
Mann, Robert
Ghose, Shohini
contents While the superposition of quantum evolutions is known to produce interference effects, the interference between evolutions with regular and chaotic classical limits remains largely unexplored. Here, we use a Mach-Zehnder interferometer to investigate the superposition of two quantum evolutions, implemented via post-selection, and to compare it with the corresponding classical mixture. The quantum kicked top provides a natural platform for this study, as its classical dynamics ranges from regular to mixed to fully chaotic depending on the Hamiltonian parameters. We show that when a regular evolution is superposed with a chaotic one, the resulting subsystem entropy can exceed that of the classical mixture, provided the contribution of the chaotic branch dominates in the superposed quantum evolution. We further demonstrate that entropy production in such superpositions is strongly influenced by the structure of the underlying classical phase space. We further show that increased entropy generation can occur for purely regular dynamics at small values of the chaos parameter, given an appropriate choice of post-selection. These results reveal a nontrivial interplay between classical chaos and quantum interference in superposed quantum dynamics
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_13209
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Superposed quantum evolutions across chaotic and regular regimes
Anand, Amit
de la Hamette, Anne-Catherine
Mann, Robert
Ghose, Shohini
Quantum Physics
Chaotic Dynamics
While the superposition of quantum evolutions is known to produce interference effects, the interference between evolutions with regular and chaotic classical limits remains largely unexplored. Here, we use a Mach-Zehnder interferometer to investigate the superposition of two quantum evolutions, implemented via post-selection, and to compare it with the corresponding classical mixture. The quantum kicked top provides a natural platform for this study, as its classical dynamics ranges from regular to mixed to fully chaotic depending on the Hamiltonian parameters. We show that when a regular evolution is superposed with a chaotic one, the resulting subsystem entropy can exceed that of the classical mixture, provided the contribution of the chaotic branch dominates in the superposed quantum evolution. We further demonstrate that entropy production in such superpositions is strongly influenced by the structure of the underlying classical phase space. We further show that increased entropy generation can occur for purely regular dynamics at small values of the chaos parameter, given an appropriate choice of post-selection. These results reveal a nontrivial interplay between classical chaos and quantum interference in superposed quantum dynamics
title Superposed quantum evolutions across chaotic and regular regimes
topic Quantum Physics
Chaotic Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.13209